Staff
The NW Braves didn’t roll out the welcome mat for the Sight & Sound Wolves.
Sight & Sound closed out it stay at the North American Fastpitch Association (NAFA) ‘A’ Division World Series in Fargo, N.D. with a 6-4 loss to the Oregon-based Braves on Saturday.
Game stats were unavailable at press time.
The Wolves, featuring a mixed roster of players from their own team in the Rainy River District Fastball League, as well as some additions from other teams both in and out of the RRDFL, wound up with a 1-3 record.
Sight & Sound lost its opener 11-1 in four innings to Kansas’ KC Indios last Thursday.
The Indios, who pounced on Wolves’ starter John Desaulniers for 16 hits, scored three runs in the first inning, then tacked on five in the second and one more in the third for a 9-0 lead.
Non-RRDFL player Kyle Langlais drove in Graeme Phillips against Indios’ starter Adam Garcia in the fourth for the only run of the game for the Wolves.
The game ended on the 10-run mercy rule after KC got two more in the bottom half.
Sight & Sound looked to be in more trouble in its first game in the Losers’ Bracket on Friday, falling behind the Saskatoon Padres 6-1 after four innings.
The Wolves clawed back into contention with four in the fifth, but were down two entering their last at-bat after Saskatoon added one in the top of the seventh.
Padres’ reliever Tyson Cleghorn, who took over in the sixth for starter Darcy McLean, couldn’t finish off Sight & Sound, though, as the Wolves rallied for three in the seventh for the 8-7 walk-off win.
Desaulniers and Jeremy Thiessen had three RBIs each to spark the offence while Murray Armstrong allowed nine hits and one walk while striking out nine for the complete-game victory.
The Wolves were in good shape in their next game later Friday, scoring two runs apiece in the first and fourth innings to help build a 5-2 lead over WAH (Banning, Calif.)
But WAH picked up one run in the fifth, then battered the Wolves for four in the sixth to earn a 7-5 victory.
Mal Shaw’s two-run homer off Desaulniers keyed the big sixth for WAH as starter Eric Long shut down the Wolves over the final three innings.
Nick Wepruk went 2-for-3 with an RBI to lead Sight & Sound’s attack.
In RRDFL playoff action last night, the first of possibly two games each in the East and West Division finals were held (scores unavailable as of press time).
The East saw the second-ranked Couchiching Raiders, despite having lost to the top-seeded Fort Frances Braves earlier in the playoffs, host the Braves at the Rodrick and Telford Bruyere Ball Field at Couchiching (due to that ballpark being equipped with lights).
In the West, the second-ranked Barwick Blue Knights hosted top-ranked Dawson after having beat the Tigers last week.
Wins by either the Braves or Knights would move each team into the best-of-three championship final (start date unknown at press time).
Victories for either the Raiders or Tigers would force a Game 2 clash since neither the Braves nor the Knights have lost yet in the double-elimination playoffs.
