A’s think this could be the year

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This article was published 29/06/2023 (843 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The St. James A’s are hoping another year of seasoning is enough to swing the club to its first Manitoba Junior Baseball League title since 2017.

After being swept by arch-rival Elmwood Giants in last season’s best-of-five championship series, the A’s have been the best team in junior baseball in 2023. The club has looked down at the rest of the league for most of the year and were atop the standings at 14-8 heading into a marquee matchup against the Giants (12-8) on at Koskie Field on Wednesday night.

The A’s have two games remaining while the Giants have four games left in the fading regular season, and a victory for either squad would go a long way toward clinching the top seed in the playoffs.

The A’s have had a lot of things go right for them this season, but none more so than the continuity within the roster. The club returned 14 players from last year’s squad, a group that appears poised to return to the finals.

“With the majority of guys coming back, we know what it takes to get there,” said ace Easton Grieve, 20. “I think now we have a better idea of how to reach that goal and how to get to that next step of winning it, rather than just getting to the finals.

“Going into these games in the playoffs, I’ve learned the more fun that we have at the ballpark together, the more success we’re going to have as a team.”

Look no further than Grieve to see what the secret sauce has been for the steady A’s. The hurler is 5-0 with a 1.08 earned run average and has held opposing batters to a .193 average this season. He’s one of three pitchers on the squad with an ERA below three. The A’s have held opponents to three runs or less in 13 contests this season.

“Obviously, that goal of ours is to win a championship but I feel like we’re taking it game by game right now,” Grieve said. We’re getting to the point now where we’re trying to clinch first place and we’re just focusing on one game at a time and hopefully playing our cards right and everything falls into place.”

Indeed, the A’s aren’t pencilling their names in the championship series just yet. The MJBL is as evenly matched as it’s been in years, with the top five teams separated by just eight points.

And it’s a familiar face who could present the biggest hurdle for them to reach the finish line. The Giants, who are seeking a sixth-straight league championship, have looked like the club that’s dominated the league over the last half-decade, winners of five straight heading into Wednesday’s critical bout.

Despite the stakes being as high as they’ve been all season — and only getting higher — head coach Curtis Grieve isn’t changing the message to his team or the approach as summer playoffs near.

“Our biggest strength this year has been our ability to throw strikes and pitch and play defence,” said Curtis, in his first year as the A’s skipper. “I think a lot of times with young men, one of the biggest mistakes we make is over-coaching and that was one of the things that I’ve told them, is they’re going to have an opportunity to prove themselves and fail.

“We’re not going to play small ball, we’re gonna try and swing the bat as much as we can and win games with the bats and defence.”

Safe to say that plan has worked. The A’s boast a league-best plus-42 run differential and have produced four double-digit run games this season. The club is surging at the right time, too, winners in eight of their last 10 contests.

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“Cliché or not, we kind of take it every game at a time and we hope we put a good effort in,” Curtis said. “But when you do play Elmwood, you know you’re going to be in a dogfight and you have to show up and plan to do things right or they’ll take advantage of every little mistake you make.”

A key change to this season’s MJBL playoffs will be a five-game series in each round, rather than just the championship series. Curtis said he believes that could work in the A’s favour this summer.

“The one thing that lends a hand to is really good pitching depth and being patient. If you give away a game, making sure (players) know it’s not the end of the world and that it’s a race to get those three wins. (Taking) one loss is probably inevitable with the parity in our league right now.”

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @Jfreysam

Joshua Frey-Sam
Reporter

Josh Frey-Sam reports on sports and business at the Free Press. Josh got his start at the paper in 2022, just weeks after graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College. He reports primarily on amateur teams and athletes in sports. Read more about Josh.

Every piece of reporting Josh produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.