Bulls look for more consistency as second half of season starts

By Lethbridge Herald on June 30, 2023.

Herald photo by Justin Seward Lethbridge BullsÕ Teigan Parenteau attempts to break up a double play as Brooks Bombers Dax Wandler tries to throw the ball to first during Western Canadian Baseball League action at Spitz Stadium in this June file photo.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Bulls kick off the second half of the Western Canadian Baseball League season today looking for more consistency in their game.

The club’s sits a win above .500 with a record of 13-12 and are clinging on to a playoff spot as they currently sit third place in the Western Canadian Baseball League’s  West Division.

“Yeah, you know, we’re in a playoff spot moving into the second half,” said Bulls head coach Chance Wheatley.

“(We’d) like to be a little more consistent. You know, we haven’t gone on any long losing streaks or winning streaks. But you know I think  kind of game to game we show up one game, the next game we don’t. So just moving into the second half, I’d like to clean that up and hopefully you know get on a winning streak here.”

Wheatley would like to see his team get healthier.

“ …And just the other thing is you know, (we are) kind of getting into the dog days of summer here with trying to keep guys healthy and get guys healthy,” said Wheatley.

“You know, that’s kind of the main priority right now.”

Wheatley thinks the Bulls have been in a lot of games.

“We really haven’t had any blowouts so far this year, maybe one or two, but often times we’ve been in the game going into like (the) seventh inning or eighth inning, so they’re not really the typical blowout, he said.

What Wheatley has liked about the team’s first half is the players have shown a lot of talent and the fantastic job the starting pitching have done.

“So just keep that rolling,” he said.

The head coach has noticed the personalities coming out with the new guys.

“So that’s good and you can see it in their play too,” said Wheatley.

“They’re starting to feel looser and yeah so hopefully we’ll keep moving forward with that.”

The Bulls have noticed the parody across the league during the first half.

“Anyone can beat anyone,” said Wheatley.

“You know, it’s shown with how close the standings are and  a lot of teams right around that .500 mark and not able to kind of  pull away from each other, other than you know Okotoks has done a good job. Anyone can beat anyone this year. So we’ve got to come out and be ready to go from the first pitch and compete every game.”

Sophomore pitcher, Aidan Newton, talked about the starters having strong starts.

“Yeah I think like as many pitchers as we do have, it really depends on having those strong starts because if we have our starters going deep into  games, we might only have to use two bullpen arms in each game,” said Newton.

“(And) having a big stretch of games coming up like we are now, having guys go deep into games and not having to use three, four bullpen arms every game, it just saves guys for the next day and the next day. So we just have more consistent, strong outings from all the guys.”

Newton said everyone’s feeling more comfortable … especially at the dish.

“They’re not trying to do quite as much as we were early in the season” said Newton.

Infielder Michael McGinnis sees the team as inconsistent.

“Like (Newton) says, you know, sometimes you have really good pitching and our hitting isn’t there, and then sometimes it’s flip flopped,” he said.

“But you know the hitters need to do a little bit better job of putting more runs on the board. I think the pitchers are doing good keeping the the runs off the board.”

Lethbridge beat the Brooks Bombers 8-4 on the road to close out the first half on Friday.

The Bulls open the second half with the Canada Day doubleheader at Spitz Stadium today against the Swift Current 57’s at 2:05 p.m. and 7:35 p.m.