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Alberta zips past Newfoundland
SCOTT SCHMIDT
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Strong pitching has been plentiful to
start the Baseball Canada Cup, but on Thursday, Alberta starter
Taylor Simmonds raised the bar.
During a 14-0 win over Newfoundland at
Athletic Park, Simmonds accomplished what all pitchers dream of
— a no hitter. The feat was aided by a 10-run mercy rule
after five innings, but a no-hitter on the nation’s biggest
stage is something he won’t forget.
"It feels really good, but we had tons of
offence making it easier to pitch," said Simmonds of his outing.
"It was nice to go out there and be relaxed and just pitch a good
game.
"The team is doing great, we’re
getting clutch hits when we need to and out pitching has been
good."
Alberta followed with a 5-3 win over
Prince Edward Island to lead the Pool B standings at 3-0. In Pool
A, British Columbia was upset by Saskatchewan and is now tied at
2-1 with Ontario.
Simmonds gave up two walks in the contest,
and one hitter reached on an error, but only one runner made it to
second base. Simmonds was trying to keep the notion of the
no-hitter out of his mind — as best he could.
"When there is two outs, it’s in the
back of your mind," admitted Simmonds. "But you just try to block
it out and keep throwing strikes and do what you’ve been
doing the whole game.
"You think about it and tighten up a
little bit, but it didn’t really affect me very much."
Part of that calm came from knowing the
lead was insurmountable very early. Alberta put up three runs in
the first, added five more in the second and four more in the
third.
Dan Wiun, Matt Biollo, and Shane Zimmer
all had three RBI in the game, while Scott Gerun added a pair of
his own.
"The Maritime provinces usually stay close
and get the other team off balance and then they strike," said
Zimmer. "Coach (Harold Northcott) warned us early that they did
that, so we wanted to get a big start so we could hold them off and
make sure they weren’t coming back."
Zimmer says the talent is there for his
team, but they have something else going for them that may be
bigger in such a short event.
"I have never been on a team like this
where I get along with everyone," said Zimmer. "We get along as
well as my home team in St. Albert, and I just met them a few days
ago."
Medicine Hat products Mitch Frey and Joel
Lutz had their first production of the tournament in the game as
well. Frey tripled to lead off the game and scored two runs, while
Lutz singled and scored in the fifth.
Northcott believes this group has
something special and thinks they could be playing in some big
games come this weekend.
"You look at this team and it’s not
just pitching," said Northcott. "We’ve got some very good
hitters, and defensively we’re very tough, so we’ve got
the three components that make a good team.
"We’ve got that energy... I
haven’t seen an energy level (like this) on a Team Alberta
since 1991 when I started coming to this. This is a very
interesting team and they’ve got a very bright future ahead
of them."
In other games Thursday, New Brunswick
beat Manitoba 5-4 in nine innings, Ontario beat Québec 6-0,
Saskatchewan beat British Columbia 3-2, Manitoba beat Nova Scotia
14-9 and New Brunswick beat Prince Edward Island 1-0.
In the standings, British Columbia and
Ontario are tied atop Pool A with 2-1 records, followed by
Québec and Saskatchewan at 1-2.
Alberta leads Pool B at 3-0, followed by
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia at 2-1, Manitoba and Prince Edward
Island at 1-2 and Newfoundland at 0-3. |
