Miners set to pitch into a new season

By Lethbridge Herald on May 11, 2023.

Herald FILE photo Herald File photo Lethbridge American Legion Miners Dylan Asplund tries to pick a ball out of the dirt against the Calgary Strive in a May 2022 game at Spitz Stadium in this file photo.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge American Legion Baseball Miners ‘A’ baseball step on the field today to start their 2023 season.

“Yeah evaluations went really well,” said head coach Nicholas Ankermann.

“All the kids came out and performed and made our decision very tough and stuff. We ended up going with 16 kids for our final roster spot. Usually they try to go above 15 and stuff, but again it was tough decisions and then some guys who just do pitching … We need lots of arms during the year. So had to take 16 to have that extra pitcher this year.”

Ankermann described the roster as “ We’re a decently new roster.”

“With the Elks losing nine senior players (from) last year, they took quite a few of the returning Miners,” said Ankermann.

“So we are a very fresh group and a little bit younger group but we do have some experienced 17 and 18 year olds who were on the team last year that’ll hopefully bring that leadership to these younger guys. And we’ve been watching these younger guys play in the high school academy and high school games over the last year (or) so and they’ve been on our radar already. They were very close to making the team already last year. So they were almost guaranteed locks for the team this year.”

Ankermann sees improvements on defence and in pitching.

“So that’s why we’re really looking forward to this year,” said Ankermann.

“We think that this team is going to be (a) really strong defensive team. And a lot of the pitchers that we have, we’ve seen and they like to throw strikes. So we’re really looking forward to the defensive side, especially this year with yeah making less errors and walking less players.”

Ankermann thinks hitting wise, the team will be hitting for a good average.

“We might not have as much power as we did last year,” he said.

“We lost a few big bats from last year. But the bats that we’ve added into the line-up this year or that we will be adding into the line-up will be able to hit for average — which is just as good as hitting for power.”

The Miners will look to score runs through stealing, hit and runs, little jobs to advance the base runners and have extra base hits.

The Miners will open up with their annual Ron Matthews Memorial Tournament all this weekend at Spitz Stadium.

“Yeah, any kind of tournament always brings out just that extra little bit of competitiveness,” said Ankermann.

“Especially when you know it’s teams that you have rivalries with. We always have our rivalries with Medicine Hat and Vauxhall. So it’s always just a little bit sweeter when you’re able to beat them, especially in like a tournament situation to possibly knock them out or to win a championship in the finals.”

Lethbridge plays Fort MacLeod at 7 p.m. tonight to open the tournament.

On Saturday, the Miners will play Medicine Hat at 1 p.m. and against Vauxhall at 7 p.m. and will wrap up pool play on Sunday at 10 a.m. against Cranbrook.

The championship game is at 4 p.m. on Sunday.

The team will open up conference play next weekend against Medicine Hat.