Miners sweep Cardinals in twin bill

By Lethbridge Herald on June 14, 2023.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward Herald photo by JUSTIN SEWARD Lethbridge MinersÕ Alex Westlund gets back safely to the bag before Tri-County CardinalsÕ Christean Habits applies the tag during American Legion baseball action at Spitz Stadium on Wednesday night.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge American Legion Miners ‘A’ baseball team held on for an 8-6 win over the Tri-County Cardinals in the first game of the double header in rainy and cold conditions at Spitz Stadium on Wednesday night.

“Yeah, it was a battle out there,” said Miners head coach Nicholas Ankermann.

“Weather conditions weren’t great. We came into today (Wednesday) not knowing if we were going to play or not with tornado warnings and the rain forecasted and stuff. But we were still mentally hoping to be ready to play. And yeah conditions were tough, but we battled through and we were able to get the job done.”

Ankermann said overall  the defence was pretty consistent all game.

“A few times with the wet balls, throws got away from us and early on it seemed like a little bit (of a) struggle pitching wise with wild pitches and passed balls that helped them get a lot of guys on base and extra bases,” he said.

Alex Westlund, Midnite Toker and Kieran Inaba each had two hits in the game.

“Yeah we had a few guys who swung the bat well today,” said Ankermann.

“Kieran Inaba started us off in that three-run inning there with a nice line drive single. Bowen Weaver came up later in that inning again (and)had also a nice line drive right at the third basemen. And, yeah, we had some older guys and younger guys that stepped up to the plate and did their part.”

The Miners, however, left 11 players stranded on base.

“Yeah, we had a lot of opportunities early on in the game,” said Ankermann.

“(We) loaded the bases with two outs (and) weren’t able to capitalize and score, loaded  the bases (with) one out (and) weren’t able to capitalize and score. So just working at trying to do a better job. We work in practices in those exact situations, so that they’re ready to go (and) ready to do that when the game time comes and stuff. But just trying to do a job,… try to be a good team player, work hard and try to get those extra runs because every run counts in these games.”

Kade Pallett pitched four innings for the Miners before giving way to Dylan Asplund to finish the game with three innings of work.

The Miners had eight runs on eight hits.

The Miners took the second game  13-1.