The BID Group Grays will have to dust off their defence.
A little more than a week from now, the Grays will start play at the BC Senior Baseball Association provincial championship tournament. As hosts of the eight-team event, they'd like nothing more than to claim the title and the berth in the 2013 nationals that goes with it.
But, based on their performance at the Red Deer Riggers tournament last weekend, the Grays have some work to do in order to contend for the BC crown. They went 0-3 in Red Deer and, along the way, made too many miscues when their opponents were up to bat.
"We played well for the most part, just lots of little mistakes," said Grays player/coach Jay Cook. "I think just not having played enough together, more than anything, hurt us. Lots of little things add up to big things and cost you when you're playing good teams."
The Grays, an all-star team from the Shooters Bar & Grill P.G. Senior Baseball League, were playing in just their second tournament of the year. Against quality clubs in Red Deer, they lost 7-4 to the Fort Saskatchewan A's, 12-8 to the Red Deer Stags and 4-3 in an extra inning to the St. Albert Tigers.
Provincials are Aug. 3-6 at Citizen Field and Rotary Field. Later in August, the same venues will host the Baseball Canada Senior Championship and that tournament will see the A's compete as Team Alberta. The Tigers, meanwhile, are another traditional Alberta powerhouse.
Aside from defence, pitching depth was a problem for the Grays in Red Deer. Jon Bourassa was the only regular hurler who made the trip, and the lack of bodies in the bullpen forced Brandon Hunter and Cook to spend time on the mound. Cook said he last pitched in a truly competitive situation 15 years ago. For the tournament, the Grays did pick up chucker Marc Wilson of Calgary.
An encouraging sign for the Grays was their offensive production -- 15 runs scored in the three games.
"That was good because it was a step up in pitching," Cook said. "Everybody swung the bats pretty well. We scored more than enough runs all weekend to win, we just made defensive errors and mental errors."
For provincials, the Grays have been grouped in a round-robin division with Okanagan 1, Lower Mainland 2 and the Victoria Mavericks. The other pool features Lower Mainland 1, Okanagan 2, the Nanaimo Coalminers and the Trail Orioles. Cook said the Okanagan and Lower Mainland representatives will be decided this weekend.
The Grays open provincials with an Aug. 3 game (6:30 p.m., Citizen Field) against Okanagan 1. The next day, the hosts will take on Lower Mainland 2 at 8 p.m. at Citizen Field. The Grays will complete their round-robin schedule on Aug. 5 (10:30 a.m., Citizen Field) against the Mavericks.
Playoffs will start that night.
