Sight & Sound had their offensive breakout of a season that’s already halfway over with a convincing 18-3 win over Sabaskong last night at VanJura Stadium here.
The win boosts Sight & Sound’s record to 7-4-1 on the year while Sabaskong’s loss dropped them to a 1-8 record.
“Once a few guys start hitting, it always seems that it all comes in a bunch and you kind of feed off of each other,” said Derek McKinnon, who crossed the plate four times last night.
“We’ve been playing a lot better lately,” he added.
Five home runs would back that statement as nine runs were scored from long balls hit by Duane Carlson, Brian LeMay, Paul Visser, Dale Jerry, and Harvey Flamand.
Flamand earned the win, striking out five Sabaskong batters.
But it was the play of Kurtis Wepruk that really stuck out, especially for someone playing only his second game of the season.
Wepruk, 19, went 3-for-4 with two doubles and a single. He had a pair of RBIs and also scored twice himself.
“It was a pretty good learning experience,” said Wepruk, who went 0-for-4 in his first outing with the team.
McKinnon had asked Wepruk to join the team.
“He’s a good hockey player [Wepruk used to play with the Muskies] and a good athlete,” argued McKinnon. “Give him a couple of more games and he’ll be smacking them out, too.”
That’s a scary thought for the other teams in the league as Sight & Sound, the two-time defending champs, have regained their winning form after playing .500 ball in the early part of the season.
“They can throw a one through nine lineup at you [and] that’s scary,” said Gary Noga, who also just recently joined Sight & Sound, going 2-for-2 last night with a couple of singles and a sacrifice bunt.
And that’s the lineup Sabaskong pitcher John Big George had to deal with.
He looked good in the early going, but getting struck by a ball right above his left knee in the third inning caused him to change his approach and negatively affected his game.
“We had a good start, but in the latter part of the game, they started to hit the ball really well. We were playing a very good team,” said Big George, who said his team was able to learn a lot from the game that saw Sight & Sound score 10 runs in the fourth inning and then six more in the fifth.
“We learned a lot from this game. I learned a lot as a pitcher and as a team we learned a lot,” said Big George.
Sight & Sound’s next home game will come against Barwick, the team they beat in the final last season, next Thursday (July 14) at 8 p.m. The Blue Knights have suffered only one loss so far this season.
In other RRDFL action, Big Grassy downed Big Island 9-5 while Barwick dumped Stratton 9-3.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
