By Sheldon Spackman

Riggers looking to ramp up intensity for season’s second half

Jun 28, 2018 | 11:14 AM

The Red Deer Riggers are looking to turn up their intensity for the second half of the Sunburst Baseball League season.

That according to Jason Chatwood, President, Coach and player with the senior men’s baseball team who now sit in second place with a 4-3 record following back-to-back losses. They play next on Friday night against the Tigers in St. Albert.

Chatwood says the team is competing well but can still do more with respect to finishing.

“I think the league is competitive this year to where each team is getting better,” states Chatwood. “You have to come out each night and make sure that you’re ready to go and if you’re not, there’s a good chance that you’re going to get beat. I think there’s maybe some times that our energy levels have been a little bit flat for the year and I think that’s one thing that as a team we’re working on leading into this July and then obviously into playoffs and nationals.”

Essentially, Chatwood hopes that winning the Provincial title last year and already knowing they’re going to Nationals, doesn’t have the team looking too far ahead and losing sight of their current schedule.

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However, he acknowledges some players this year have had a strong start to their season.

“Shayne Court, he’s automatic out there defensively. I think he’s putting together some awesome at-bats. Jared (Chatwood) at third base has been solid, Denver (Wik) at second base has been outstanding. We’ve had some guys that have kind of stepped up, our pitching staff has kind of been consistent and most nights all of our pitchers will give us a chance to win.”

With the midway point of the regular season upon them, Chatwood anticipates the team’s energy level to be much better moving forward, starting with Friday’s game against the Tigers.

“Regular season games we can start working on stuff as a team and try to jump out and get early leads,” says Chatwood. “Pitchers getting ahead early and defensively and offensively, maybe taking a step back and get into the fundamentals. But that energy level is something I think as a team that we’re really trying to focus on from here out.”

“If things go our way, I think we position ourselves into a good spot to hopefully compete for another provincial title,” adds Chatwood. “This year it seems there’s a lot of parity in the league. Everyone seems to be beating everybody, so it should be an exciting finish for the league and I think that whoever gets hot at the right time is really going to put themself in a good spot.”