The Red Deer Riggers played well enough to win but a late surge by the Edmonton Confederation Cubs led to a heartbreaking 7-5 loss on Tuesday night at Great Chief Park.
“With everyone in the league it is a battle,” Manager Jason Chatwood said. “It’s good. It gets us ready for playoffs, but you have to come and play. It was a good game tonight. Both teams played well and they won out in the end.”
Despite giving up the first run, Red Deer would manage to get out to an early 4-1 lead heading into the seventh inning.
After a pitching change, the Cubs would score on a single shot home run, followed by a double and a basehit leading to a tie game 4-4.
The Riggers would get a solid eighth pitcher Joel Peterman, followed by a basehit RBI by Shayne Court — putting Red Deer up 5-4.
Drew Boyer would take the ball from Peterman in the ninth and crucial inning and would earn to quick outs, putting the game within Red Deer’s grasp.
Chatwood said his team was confident with handing the ball to Boyer at this point in the game.
“We were happy with Drew coming in and he came in and had two quick outs — the guy came in and battled and found a hole. A couple didn’t go our way and it is a tough one,” he said.
Unfortunately for Boyer, the Cubs would notch two RBI singles which led to the final score of 7-5 for the Cubs.
“It was a good game,” Chatwood said. “We played solid but give them credit, they scored five runs in the last three innings and the majority of it was on two outs.
“They had some good at-bats and found some holes and it is one of those things that just snuck up on us and we didn’t finish the way we hoped.”
Despite the loss, Chatwood sees improvement on his squad.
“Things are starting to clean up for everyone in the league and games are starting to move faster,” he said. “The defences are playing good and it is getting harder to find your hits and pitchers are starting to throw better. I thought all of pitchers threw well tonight and it is just one of those things — tip your hat to them.”
The Riggers now play four games on the road before returning to Great Chief Park on July 17th.
“We still need to sharpen up. We are playing solid but we have some room to improve. We still have some time before playoffs with a busy month coming up. It will be good to get in our groove and get some consistent gameplay in.”
