Neither the Pembina Valley Orioles or Altona Bisons had great starts to the new Manitoba Junior Baseball League season this past week.
Altona’s Lochlan Rempel is called out at second on the force out throw to Pembina Valley’s Teemu Peters. Above: While the batter runs to first base, Bisons shortstop Hayden Janzen gets the force out at second base ahead of the sliding Oriole Ryan Peters. Below: Orioles Jackson Friesen celebrates his two-run homer with teammates
The Orioles dropped both ends of a doubleheader with the Elmwood Giants 7-4 and 9-8 opening weekend, but rebounded to pick up their first win by edging the Bisons 5-4 last Wednesday.
Altona meanwhile is winless in three as they also fell 6-0 and 10-5 Sunday to the St. Boniface Legionaires.
In game one with Elmwood, four runs in the top of the fifth made the difference for the Giants as they came into that inning trailing 4-2.
In game two, the Giants had taken a 9-2 lead in the fifth inning then survived a late comeback by the Orioles, who actually outhit Elmwood 9-5. Jaren Hildebrand, Chris Peters and Harden Friesen each had two hits for Pembina Valley, while Friesen took the loss in allowing four runs on just one hit but walking five over five innings.
Against Altona, the Orioles drove in two runs in the bottom of the sixth to earn the slight win over the Bisons, while hits were 5-3 in favour of Pembina Valley. Jackson Friesen tripled to drive home the two runs for the margin of victory. Sam Blatz earned the win in allowing three hits and four runs over six innings.
In game one with St. Boniface, the Bisons actually had a 7-5 edge in hits but were unable to drive home any runs. Dillan Thiessen had two hits, and Logan Lesser took the loss in allowing four runs on four hits in four and two thirds innings.
The Legionaires came out strong in game two in taking a 5-0 lead in the top of the first with the help of a three-run home run, and they had a 9-7 edge in hits over Altona. Thiessen was on the mound for Altona, allowing three runs on four hits in two innings.
Coming up, the Bisons visit Winnipeg South Wednesday and then head to Carillon for a Sunday doubleheader with the Sultans. The Orioles meanwhile head north to the Interlake for a Sunday doubleheader with the Blue Jays.
