By Robb Fenton
The Lloyd Jays continued their early season success with a strong effort against the Kindersley Raiders Sunday afternoon at Legion Park.
The Jays scored all of their seven runs in the fourth and fifth innings and cruised to a 7-2 win to remain undefeated in 2010.
“We’re happy. Kindersley is usually pretty tough and were tough through most of the game, but we just got away from them a little bit in the last couple innings. It was a tough game and a good win,” Jays player/coach Clayton Ermel said.
While the Jays threatened a number of times early in the game, including the second when they had runners on second and third with one out, they weren’t able to break through until the second half of the game thanks to timely hitting.
“We just started putting some hits together, getting on the bats. We got a couple situations where we could put down the bunt, so we got some runners over and did our job,” Ermel said.
The fourth inning for the Jays was a perfect example of the gameplan the Jays are hoping to implement this season.
With the leadoff batter on base after earning a walk, the Jays bunted him to third and cashed him in on a sacrifice fly.
They also added a run thanks to some clutch two-out hitting.
“That’s what we try to do every game is manufacture some runs. You never know what game our bats might go cold, so we’ve got to get our runners over any way we can,” Ermel said.
After taking the lead in the fourth, the Jays erupted for five runs in the fifth and put the game away.
The first five batters to plate all reached base and scored blowing the game wide open.
While it took the offence a few innings to get going, Ermel was very happy with his team’s defence, which performed very well and kept the game close, not allowing the Raiders to cash in many of their baserunners.
“We had good defence. I can’t think of anything that went bad. Everybody did their job out there, it just kind of clicked,” he said.
Ermel, who threw six strong innings was the beneficiary of strong defence and said he felt good on the mound.
“I felt good today. I kept them off the bats for most of the game and it just felt good. The arm is feeling better. I’ve had some arm trouble in the past few years, but it’s starting to feel better and I just had a good game,” he said, adding his team supported him offensively and defensively.
Scoring seven runs, limiting the Raiders offence and picking up a win are all going to help the Jays going forward and will allow them to continue to sit near the top of the standings.
“Kindersley is tough and every win gives us confidence. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Twins or one of the lower teams in the standings, every win gives us a bit more and keeps us going for the rest of the year,” Ermel said.
The Jays are on the field next tomorrow night when they travel to Edam to take on the Blue Sox.