By Robb Fenton
Six runs in the first three innings were enough for the Lloydminster Twins.
The Twins built up a 6-0 lead after three and a 7-0 lead after five and hung on for a 9-6 win over the Lloydminster Juniors, Tuesday night at Legion Ball Park on opening day of the NSRBL season.
Aside from a few small glitches in the last two innings, the Twins were very happy with their performance to kick off the season.
“It’s always nice to get the win the first game. I thought the boys did a good job,” Twins coach Kelly Hoffer said. “Our plan was to take a lot of pitches, take some walks and fortunately it worked out for us. We had a couple big hits from a few guys and our pitchers, for the most part did a good job.”
Offensively, the Twins had a great game, scoring nine runs and capitalizing on a few mistakes the Juniors made.
The Juniors played a solid game, but a handful of walks to go along with a few errors allowed the Twins to build up a comfortable lead.
“They gave us a lot of baserunners with a lot of walks and a couple guys came up with some big two-out hits and put the ball in play and made them make the plays,” Hoffer said. “We did a good job taking pitches and working our way on.”
Despite falling short in the end, the Juniors were able to mount a solid comeback, scoring six runs in the final two innings thanks to a leadoff double by Landon Noyes which began the sixth inning rally.
“They showed some heart in the end, it’s good to see a bunch of young guys like this come out and battle,” Juniors coach Curtis Lystand said. “We’ll have a good team and we’ll be fine.”
Lystang was proud of the way his team didn’t quit despite being down seven runs at one point and he said that’s going to go a long way during the season, knowing they can comeback
“That will carry on. It shows we can comeback in the later innings. We can’t mess around at the start, but if we can comeback that’s great,” Lystand said.
After two runs in the second inning, Alejandro Garcia singled home two more as part of a four-run third inning, which really broke the game open.
Garcia then scored, what turned out to be the winning run, in the fifth inning.
The Juniors then sent eight batters to the plate in the sixth inning, scoring three times before the Twins responded with two of their own.
The Twins’ hitters did a good job of working the count and seeing a lot of pitches, which led to a lot of baserunners and eventually nine runs.
“We faced two pretty good pitchers, probably top five guys in the league and our guys did a real good job or staying in there,” Hoffer said of his team’s hitters. “Guys weren’t swinging at the curveballs in the dirt, we were real patient and I thought we did a real good job, put the ball in play and force them to make plays.”
Three runs in the top of the seventh wasn’t enough for the Juniors, as they fell short despite the strong comeback.
“One game at a time and you take the positives,” Lystang said of his team’s mentality.
For the Twins it was a good start and something they want to see continue all season.
“We want to keep working. We have goals we set where we want to end up a the end of the year and every game is going to be working towards those goals,” Hoffer said.
The Twins next action is Thursday at home against the Lloyd Midget Twins, while the Juniors are in St. Walburg Wednesday.