’Cats back to .500 with weekend sweep

BY JOHN DECOSTE

Kings County Register

Interprovincial play against New Brunswick hasn’t always been kind to Nova Scotia Senior Baseball League teams, but the Kentville Wildcats will take this past weekend’s results anytime.

Kentville played a doubleheader July 12 at Memorial Park, with the Fredericton Royals and the Saint John Alpines.

The Wildcats swept both games, coming from behind to edge Fredericton 4-3, then scoring a relatively easy 7-2 win over Saint John.

Trailing the afternoon game 3-2 entering the bottom of the ninth, the ’Cats scored a pair of runs to pull out the victory, the winning run scoring on Luke Smith’s RBI single.

Pete Sonier, who pitched a scoreless ninth, picked up the win in relief of Trevor Wamback, who pitched well but left trailing by a run. Fredericton ended up with 10 hits, while the Wildcats scored their four runs on just six hits. Each team made an error.

Kentville then had 17 hits in the nightcap, overshadowing a great pitching performance by Kevin Nichols, who combined with Sonier on a six-hitter.

The Wildcats scored twice in the second inning, once in the third, three times in the fourth and once in the seventh. Saint John scored both its runs in the top of the eighth.

Kevin Benjamin continued his hot hitting with three singles and one RBI, and Ian Lockhart also had three singles. Luke Smith singled and doubled and drove in a run, Mike Lockhart singled and tripled and had one RBI, and Curtis Falls had two singles and one RBI. Ryan Levine had a two-run double for Saint John’s only runs.

The wins allowed the Wildcats to get back to .500 on the season with 11 wins and 11 losses, and the weekend results also tightened up the NSSBL standings.

As of July 14, Dartmouth, 3-0 on the weekend, led the standings at 16-5. Halifax, which split its weekend games, was second at 11-9, with the Wildcats third at 11-11. Truro, 2-1 on the weekend, was at 9-11, while Sydney, which lost both its weekend games, dropped to 4-16. Among the N.B. teams, Moncton and Chatham were both 2-1 on the weekend, Fredericton and Saint John both 0-2 and Summerside 0-3.

The Wildcats travel to Dartmouth this evening (Thursday) and are in Truro July 22 before returning home to host Truro in a doubleheader July 27.