By Sheldon Spackman

Riggers hoping experience and depth translates to success at nationals

Aug 20, 2018 | 11:10 AM

After a disappointing loss to Sherwood Park in the Sunburst Baseball League final series, the Red Deer Riggers are shifting their focus to the Baseball Canada Men’s National Championships in Victoria, B.C. this week.

The Riggers earned the right to participate following last season’s provincial championship title.

Riggers shortstop Jason Chatwood credits the Athletics for playing a great series in the league final.

“I’m not going to take anything away from them,” says Chatwood. “They had a really good series, good pitching, their bats were going, it seemed like there was nothing we could do to slow them down. We couldn’t get anything rolling, we didn’t get any breaks and we couldn’t find any momentum throughout the series, we tip our caps to them, they were better.”

However, Chatwood feels there are positives they can take away from the experience moving on to nationals this week.

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“Lots of things to learn from, for us right now it’s all about kind of turning the page and looking forward to this coming week,” he says. “The nice thing is, everyone shows up on day one with a clean slate, everyone has a 0-0 record and it’s teams you really don’t see so it’s just a chance to go out and go battle and whoever gets hot at the right time is the team that wins.”

Chatwood expects the competition to be tough but anticipates the Riggers to be up for the challenge.

“We’re going to see some tough pitching for sure,” he admits. “It’s seven inning games so don’t get too high or too low and just capitalize on chance that we can get, just go compete. Nationals are high emotions, lots of ups and downs so if we can just stay focused on what our goals are, I think that will give us the best chance to win.”

With previous experience playing at the national tournament, Chatwood hopes the Riggers can use that to their advantage this week.

“We’ve been there before, that’s the big thing for us, we know what to expect and what it takes,” he explains. “Guys are getting excited about the chance to continue our season and go for the big one. We need to use our strengths, we’ve got a lot of depth, we’ve been able to pick up some guys from other teams to come in and help us out, so just using our experience and depth.”  

Chatwood does however wish to thank central Albertans for all their support this season.

“It’s really, really appreciated from our team,” he exclaims. “The crowds that we get, it’s awesome to be able to play in front of all the people in central Alberta. The supports been amazing for us, so that’s a huge take away.”

The Riggers schedule at nationals which run from August 23-26 is as follows:

August 23, 9:00 a.m. vs Iderton (ON2)

August 23, 3:00 p.m. vs British Columbia

August 24, 3:00 p.m. vs Newfoundland and Labrador

August 25, 11:00 a.m. vs Quebec

Quarter finals take place Saturday evening with the semi-finals and medal games on Sunday, August 26.