Elks identify strength early in season

By Lethbridge Herald on May 20, 2025.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward Lethbridge Elks Kade Pallett connnects with a ball in the batting cage on Tuesday.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Elks have a kicked off a  new American Legion Baseball AA  season with an identified strength and having a lot prep time ahead of conference play in a few weeks’ time.

The Elks were in the Vauxhall tournament this past weekend where they went 2-2 and will have exhibition games against Okotoks next weekend ahead of their conference play opener against Medicine Hat on June 8.

“I thought for early in the season (in the) first games out against some pretty quality clubs, I thought we competed quite well and might be a good sign for this year,” said Scott Oikawa, Elks head coach.

Oikawa said it is nice, when asked about how advantageous it is to have some exhibition games ahead of the season.

 “to work on some of the team defence and some different philosophies, it is kind of nice to have a few weeks here to work on that,” said Oikawa.

The Elks look to have pitching depth to help with their success.

“We’re going to  need it with a pretty regular schedule that  we do have in June and July,” said Oikawa.

“But it is nice to have those arms, especially early, competing for  conference spots.”

The Elks have all of last year’s Lethbridge Miners ‘A’ team’s  pitching staff plus some returners from last year.

“We only hope and expect that they’ll make that nice jump this year and give us  some quality innings,” said Oikawa.

Third-year Elk  Ben Puszkar agreed pitching will be the strength.

“A lot of guys show a lot of promise and I’m really excited to see them play this year,” said Puszkar.

Oikawa looks to the Elks veterans that are scattered through the line-up to  hopefully help with their success.

“We do have a number of veterans and from one through nine, you hope that in any given day  somebody can break out with a big game,” said Oikawa.