The final score wouldn’t suggest so, but there were plenty of individual heroics as the Swift Current 57’s defeated the visiting Regina Buffalos Buffalos 13-3 to win the Regina AAA League championship Wednesday.
The 57’s were simply the better team in the field, on the mound, and at the plate in a decisive win. Cash Arntsen had the final say when he hit a walk-off three-run home run in the bottom of the fifth inning.
“It felt really good,” said Arntsen of the home run, his first as a Bantam player. “I didn’t know if it was going to go over or not, so I was just trying to run hard. I was just trying not to strike out too. It felt really, really good.”
Brody Alexandre got the win on the mound with five complete innings, throwing 91 pitches along the way. “It feels great,” said Alexandre after the win. “I have never done this before.
“It was a good feeling. That was his first ever home run. It was a great feeling winning it and for him,” Alexandre said of watching the game-winning home run sail over the left-field fence.
The hard-throwing righty got off to shaky start, allowing a run in the first inning before getting the final out with the bases loaded.
“I just started taking deep breaths, calmed myself down. Then I just played catch, tried to focus on smaller spots, then I was able to get back in my rhythm.”
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The 57’s replied with two runs in the bottom of the first to take a 2-1 lead and then Mac Gross gave the 57’s some breathing room with a grand slam in the second inning. The Buffalos replied with two runs in the fourth inning before the 57’s scored seven runs in the fifth for a mercy rule shortened victory.
The inning included a perfectly executed bases loaded bunt by Ethan Murdoch to score Reed Jacobson, a two-run double from Dawson Schultz, and a RBI single from Kelsey Rokochy.
“I feel like we played very good compared to some of the times this year with our ups and downs,” said Alexandre.
“I thought we played really good to get the win. We faced some really good pitchers off the start, but we battled and we got the win so it was good,” added Arntsen.
The 57’s will now head to Saskatoon for AAA Bantam Provincials on July 28-30. They are grouped in a pool with the Saskatoon Blue Jays, Regina Pacers, Regina White Sox, and Saskatoon Braves at the 10-team tournament.
“I feel like we are going to do good. We have a pretty tough pool, but other than that I think we have got a pretty good shot,” said Alexandre.
“We want to win Provincials. We want to go far there and then hopefully make it to Westerns and then see what we can do there,” said Arntsen shortly before his teammates snuck up behind and emptied their water coolers on top of him.
