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Global News
4 days ago
- Sport
- Global News
Record-setting Saskatoon Berries see historic season halted in Game 3 loss to Regina
It's not the ending the Saskatoon Berries had envisioned when Western Canadian Baseball League playoffs began less than a week prior. The Berries walked off the diamond at Cairns Field with their season coming to a close, falling just shy of reaching the WCBL championship series for a second year in a row. 'It's just tough having a season like we did and coming up short,' said Berries first baseman Ethan Menard. 'It's never easy. A team like we had this year, you don't win that many games without being really close with guys and really close with coaches. So the goodbyes are definitely hard.' After putting together the winningest regular season in WCBL history, the Berries won't get a chance to chase a title after falling 6-2 to the Regina Red Sox in Game 3 of East Division finals. Story continues below advertisement As on their home diamond, Saskatoon watched the Red Sox celebrate a divisional title and the opportunity to face the Sylvan Lake Gulls for glory this week. 'It's just heartbreaking, you know,' said Menard. 'Having such a good season, having a bunch of good guys around you and losing the last one of the season.' For Saskatoon's group of returning players, it's déjà vu from a year ago when the team lost Game 3 of WCBL East finals to the Moose Jaw Miller Express to see their inaugural season come to an end. Berries star outfielder Carter Beck said Tuesday's loss at the hands of the Red Sox brought those memories rushing back with a sense of unfinished business in the team's locker room. 'It's terrible that I got flashbacks from last year,' said Beck. 'It kind of is what it is; it's over now. You can't change it now.' Tied 1-1 in the top of the third inning, the Red Sox would cash in runs from Brady Bye and Jalen Meyers to take a 3-1 lead before Saskatoon answered back with an sacrifice-fly from Abiam Medina to score Beck from third. The turning point of Game 3 came in the seventh inning for Regina, as Matthew Fox delivered a two-run RBI to stretch the Red Sox lead to 5-2. Story continues below advertisement That was immediately followed up with a Bye deep shot to the wall in centre field, scoring Fox to deliver the final dagger on Saskatoon's season. It was a stunning upset for Regina, defeating the Berries who entered playoffs as the top-ranked team in the WCBL following a record-setting 46-9 regular season. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy That regular season success didn't end up translating quite the same once the post-season hit however, with the Berries going 3-3 over their six playoff games. 'We had opportunities and that's what you want,' said Berries head coach Joe Carnahan. 'You want to have opportunities; sometimes you take care of them and sometimes you don't. This year we weren't able to cash in on some of the opportunities we had.' Despite their championship hopes evaporating on Tuesday night, the Berries will still enter the league's record books with the most regular season wins in a season in WCBL history beating last year's Sylvan Lake Gulls. 1:54 Red Sox on doorstep of WCBL championship series, Berries playing for season in pivotal Game 2 Though it doesn't provide any comfort in their disappointment, Beck said that record will help set the table for an even deeper run next summer. Story continues below advertisement 'We took another step with this program and this whole organization,' said Beck. 'We took another step and had a really good season, just keep building off that and trying to get better every year. It's going to be tough to beat that regular season record, but hopefully we can keep those kind of wins up and then win more in the playoffs.' With 10 seniors dotting the Berries roster, the team will be losing a good chunk of their team including the Louisiana-born duo of Menard and catcher Bailyn Sorensen who have been with the team since its inception in 2024. The two now depart a city they'd only heard about in movies. 'I only knew it through the movie Grown Ups and the guy saying Saskatchewan,' said Sorensen. 'I looked it up and I was like, 'That's in Canada.' That's how I kind of figured out that's where Saskatchewan was.' Sorensen quickly became a key piece of the Berries' offence at the dish and a reliable play caller behind home plate and added it was an easy decision to potentially close out his baseball career in Saskatoon. 'I wouldn't trade coming up here for the world,' said Sorensen. 'These people here, they welcome you with open arms. This is a great organization fuelled by great fans, we have great owners. It was a big thing coming to Saskatoon.' Story continues below advertisement Dubbed the 'Mayor of Saskatoon' during his time in the city with his big swings and gregarious personality, Menard said it will be a hard goodbye, departing the organization. It will be hard saying goodbye both to his teammates he's spent the last two summers battling with and a city which will continue to have a hold on his heart. 'I don't think I'll ever be able to appreciate a place as much as I appreciate Saskatoon,' said Menard. 'The care and the love that you feel from everybody, the ups and downs, just unwavering love and affection for the guys that are on that field working their tail off every day.' Red Sox reach WCBL championship As for the Red Sox, it was jubilation following Tuesday night's Game 3 win to see the franchise reach their first WCBL championship series since 2019. It was a moment that Red Sox catcher Brady Bye has been waiting for since he was young, following the team and going to games growing up in Regina. 'It means the world to me, man,' said Bye. 'I came up watching these games as a little kid, coming to the kid camps. Now being a part of it and going to a final, it really means the world to me.' Story continues below advertisement The Red Sox finished as the third seed in the East Division with a 29-27 record and lost several players off their roster early due to heading back to their collegiate programs. Despite this, head coach Rye Pothakos said it's a credit to the organization for rising above those challenges to now get the chance to play for a championship. 'It's great for our organization,' said Pothakos. 'We got a great organization, we got players that never quit, we got a great group of people at the front at the top office. This is unbelievable for us and what a great year.' Regina has not won the Harry Hallis Memorial Trophy since 2012, when the Red Sox beat the Medicine Hat Mavericks to repeat as league champions. Set to face-off against the Sylvan Lake Gulls who are preparing for their first WCBL finals appearance after sweeping the three-time defending champion Okotoks Dawgs in the West Division final, it's a moment the Red Sox say they're more than ready for. 'We know they have the heart,' said Pothakos. 'There's no quit in these guys. They have a mission, they're on a mission and we're going to chase it again here in the next week.' Game 1 of the WCBL championship series will be held at Currie Field in Regina at 7:05 p.m. on Thursday, with Game 2 and, if needed, Game 3 being hosted by Sylvan Lake on Friday and Saturday.
Global News
7 days ago
- Sport
- Global News
Beck's grand slam sends Saskatoon to WCBL East final as season ends for Moose Jaw
The biggest moments are reserved for the biggest stages, and on Saturday night that moment arrived for Saskatoon Berries slugger Carter Beck in a do-or-die contest against the Moose Jaw Miller Express. Staring down a full-count in extra innings with the bases loaded, one swing of the bat etched Beck's name in WCBL history. He delivered a series-clinching grand slam past the four-hour mark of Game 3 of the WCBL East semi-finals — a walk-off hit that kept the Berries alive in their hunt for a league championship. 'That's number one, no doubt,' Beck said of his career-defining moment. 'That might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Bases loaded, Game 3, tied game, one out and you get to a full-count on top of it. You might not get that chance ever again and sure enough, I was able to get the right outcome out of it. So that was really cool.' Story continues below advertisement The Carnduff, Sask, product launched his offering over the wall in right field, giving the Berries a 16-12 victory to win the best-of-three series two games to one. Beck later said he felt the power of the swing in his bones and knew he'd clear the outfield fence the moment his bat made contact with the ball. 'I knew that was one of the farthest home runs I've ever hit as soon as I hit it,' Beck said. 'I got every single stitch of that ball. I didn't get to watch it go because I was too busy celebrating, but I sure knew it was gone.' Beck's grand slam in the bottom of the 10th inning gave the Berries more than their most iconic moment since entering the WCBL as a franchise just over a year ago. It also put a ribbon on one of the most chaotic playoff games the league has ever seen —a game that included four lead changes and saw the Berries on the ropes of elimination after blowing a seven-run lead in the eighth inning. 'Not that crazy,' said Joe Carnahan when asked if he'd ever coached a game like Saturday's. 'You got to give [Moose Jaw] credit, they just kept playing and battling. We were throwing high-leverage guys in there at them the whole game. We just couldn't turn the faucet off that one inning.' Story continues below advertisement Moose Jaw got out to an early 3-0 lead following a series of hits and Saskatoon throwing errors in the second inning, a lead which held until the fourth inning. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Berries catcher Bailyn Sorensen followed up a sacrifice-fly by outfielder Ethan Murdoch to knot the score at 3-3. Saskatoon's first lead of the night came in the fifth inning following another home run, this time by Murdoch, to make it a 5-3 game. Then, the Berries broke the game open in the sixth inning with five more runs. Entering the top of the eighth inning trailing 10-3, the Miller Express came back to life with one of the biggest single-season comebacks in WCBL history: nine runs, including an Eduardo Saenz three-run home run to re-take the lead over a shell-shocked Berries squad. 2:12 Saskatoon Berries slugger Menard holding WCBL's hottest bat amid family visit That lead held until the bottom of the ninth inning when Saskatoon, trailing 12-10, got season-saving RBIs from Ethan Menard and Mason Roell to force extra innings. Story continues below advertisement 'That's what it takes especially in the playoffs,' Murdoch said. 'When one bad inning can end your season, you got to be able to bounce back. It takes good people in the dugout, just good leaders that are going to pick each other up.' Speaking after the game, Miller Express head coach Eric Marriott said it's a devastating loss for his group after mounting their eighth inning comeback and then seeing their season come to a close in extra innings. But he added there's a lot of pride in the way they fought all the way back to have a shot at staying alive. 'We had the youngest roster in the whole league this year in the WCBL,' Marriott said. 'Last year, we had the oldest roster in the league, so there's a lot of turnaround and they fought. Basically, I just told them they should be proud of themselves and their chins should be up. 'We took the best team in the league to the last out.' The Berries will have little time to celebrate the Game 3 victory however. Their second round series against the Regina Red Sox begins at Cairns Field on Sunday night. Regina has been idle since Thursday night after sweeping the Medicine Hat Mavericks with a 13-7 victory at Currie Field in Game 2 of their East semi-final series. Story continues below advertisement According to Red Sox head coach Rye Pothakos, it will be important for his team to weather the same ups and downs that the Berries experienced with a spot in the WCBL championship series on the line. 'Just keeping them level, it's the way that I like to approach baseball in general,' Pothakos said on Thursday. 'Emotions are good, but you got to keep it level. Not too many highs, not too many lows. You got to take each game at a time, respect your opponent and we've got to work hard.' Not only will the Berries have to come down from the jubilation of Saturday night's game in time for Game 1 against the Red Sox, they'll have to manage their pitching staff after using eight different arms in the win over Moose Jaw. Carnahan isn't overly concerned, given the team's depth in their bullpen all season long. 'We did go through a lot of arms and it was just that situation of a do-or-die game… We have a lot of arms, we got 18 or 19 arms and all quality arms. We got a lot of guys ready to go for [Sunday]. An encore to Saturday's heroics will be hard to come by for Beck, who mentioned wanting to ride the hot bat that allowed him to seal the first round series for Saskatoon. Story continues below advertisement 'I don't know if I'll get much bigger of a moment than that,' Beck said. 'Hopefully, it can be just a step on this crazy run we're going on… We got four more games hopefully to make that happen.' The Berries and Red Sox will clash for the first game of the WCBL East final on Sunday at 6 p.m. with the series shifting to Regina on Monday for Game 2.
