The Innisfail Indians have lots of company atop the Parkland Baseball League’s south division following a loss against the Beiseker Canadians last week.
The Indians, Olds Athletics and Carstairs Cubs are now tied for first in the division following the Canadians 5-2 win in Innisfail on July 13. The Canadians sit two points back with two games in hand on the Indians and four games in hand on the Athletics and Cubs.
Indians pitcher Kyle Burkitt, who was recently named as a PBL all-star, was commanding early on, striking out four through two while setting down six of the first seven batters he faced.
Burkitt’s teammates staked him to an quick lead in the second, with catcher Jay Kirkham driving in Steve Reaman with two outs for the game’s first run. The Indians then loaded the bases following a Jeff Archer walk and an infield single by Blain Hoppins. Canadians pitcher Camp Culp got out of the jam when he got Riley Wik to line out to first to end the inning.
Burkitt faced four batters in the top of the third, surrendering a one-out hit before retiring the next two Canadians hitters.
The Indians threatened again in their half of the inning. Darcy Nielsen singled up the middle with two out and reached third on Reaman’s infield single. With Reaman on the move to second, Brenden Nicolay popped up to Culp to end the inning.
The Canadians finally got to Burkitt in the top half of the fourth. With one out, Jeremy Guynn reached first on an error and moved to third on Ian Jalbert’s two-out infield single to a diving Wik at short. Darren Culp was next up and drove the ball into the right field corner for a two out, two-run triple. Burkitt then got Jim Sandilands to ground out to end the inning.
Kirkham led off the bottom of the fourth with a double to left field, moving to third on a balk by Culp. Hoppins plated Kirkham with the tying run on a one-out double to deep left-centre field and promptly stole third to put the go-ahead run 90 feet from home. Hoppins was left at third after Culp induced the next two Indians hitters to pop up.
An offensive outburst by the Canadians in the fifth blew the game wide open. The Canadians hit five singles – three with two out – to score three runs for a 5-2 lead.
Culp retired the next nine Indians for the win.
“Beating Innisfail is always good,” Culp said following the game. “It helps us in the standings for sure.”
Indians manager Steve Bouteiller said he was pleased with the team’s offensive production despite the loss in such a crucial game.
“At the start of the year we had trouble hitting altogether. Now we’re starting to get hits together – we’re just missing that last little bit in scoring the runners,” he said. “It’s not something we can practice, it’s just something we have to get.”
With only four games left in the regular season: a tilt last night in Carstairs against the Cubs, a makeup game against the Angels in Eckville tomorrow, a rematch at home against the Canadians on Friday, and a match up with the north division-leading Rocky Red Dogs next week, the Indians need to get on a roll to take the division.
“We need to sweep the board,” Bouteiller said.
