AXEMEN LOOK TO KEEP THE MINI-STREAK GOING
Posted May 29, 2018
It might be a short winning streak at only two games, but the Axemen have only played a total of three Powerline Baseball League games so far, and have won the last two. On Tuesday night the Axemen will head east to take on the defending PBL Champion Rosalind Athletics in the final meeting of the season between the two teams. The Axemen were 9-8 winners on May 16 in Camrose, needing a two RBI single by centre fielder Kyler Kupka to secure the walk off win.
The linescore from the previous meeting with the Rosalind Athletics.
In the first five scheduled games (four actual played games due to a rainout vs the Camrose Roadrunners) of the season the Axemen will have played the top best teams from the 2017 PBL season twice each. The worst the Axemen can do is finish 2-2 and will look to use the high scoring offense to potentially finish 3-1 vs the two teams heading into a stretch where they will see the other six teams of the league until the end of the season.
The previous meeting saw a back and forth battle between the Axemen and Athletics with Camrose jumping out to an early lead only to have the Athletics chip away. Heading into the bottom of the seventh inning the Axemen would find themselves trailing 8-7 after being up 6-1 earlier in the game. With two outs in the seventh Kupka would score Wes Wilson to tie the game and Brady Ryan to win it with a single to centre field.
Manager Zach Willms will once again have a completed rested (Axemen last played on Wednesday May 23) pitching staff that can be used in its entirety if needed (Axemen don’t play again until Monday June 5). The added flexibility will allow Willms to keep last seasons highest scoring team off balance by potentially not letting Rosalind hitters see the same pitcher three times if need be.
The key to the Axemen having success on Tuesday night will come down to its defense once again. So far this season opponents have score a total of 42 runs against the Axemen with 21 of those runs being unearned. An absurd amount of runs that have come as the result of errors so far through three games (doesn’t include some runs scoring after misplays not called errors). Giving a good team like the Athletics or the Tofield Braves has been a recipe for disaster with both wins so far this season needing come from behind efforts after poor fielding performances. Rosalind is a team that puts the ball in play, and the Axemen defense will need to rise to the challenge to sweep the defending PBL champs.
The Axemen are the third highest scoring team in the Powerline Baseball League heading into the game on Tuesday night. Only the Tofield Braves (43 runs scored in 5 games) and Armena Royals (41 runs scored in 4 games) have crossed the plate more. The team has put up 39 hits so far, which include 5 doubles, 3 triples and a homerun, with a total of ten hitters above .300 on the season so far. The offense has been there so far this season against the two best defensive teams last season, the Tofield Braves only allowed 58 runs over 14 games and Rosalind allowed only 67 over the same amount of games. But fans would like to see the Axemen start a game strong and maintain that offensive punch throughout the game, not waiting for the last two or three innings to find another gear.
First pitch is scheduled for 7:00pm at the Field affectionately called “The Homer Dome” due to it’s incredibly short fence and propensity for fly balls to become home runs