One win away.
That’s how close the Wilkie Brewers were to finding themselves in the NSRBL finals last year. After narrowly edging the Border City Blue Jays in game one of the 2015 semi-finals, Wilkie dropped two in a row, and were ousted from the playoffs.
Wilkie’s season didn’t end there, though. The Brewers went on to win the provincial tournament in Macklin, capping off a 10-5 campaign.
In 2016, the expectation is to make the playoffs and take it one step further, winning the NSRBL championship. Head Coach Trent Cey says that in order to accomplish this goal in a short season, teams have to ride momentum.
“The NSRBL is kind of a funny league in the sense that despite a team's record they can still beat you. You have to be on your toes and not underestimate any teams,” Cey said. “Some nights everything clicks and other nights you are behind and struggling. The most consistent teams are usually the ones left standing when it comes to playoff time.”
Wilkie hit for a .280 average as a club just a year ago and take pride with what they are able to do on the offensive side of the baseball. Jared Herle and Ricky Cey were a big part of these numbers, finishing the year hitting .400 and .367, respectively. Coach Cey says each season there are different players that contribute in the lineup from a game-to-game basis and discussed the importance of finding players with different tools.
“We have a good balance of speed and guys who can put pressure on team's defence and get on base. We have some guys who really come through big with RBI and we have a few guys that you can count on almost every game to get a hit or two or work counts and make it tough on pitchers. That balance makes us a pretty tough team to pitch against most nights."
On the defensive side, Wilkie will turn to David Schell once again to lead the way for the pitching staff. In 2015, Schell ate a ton of innings for the Brewers, finishing the year with 31.2 innings pitched under his belt. To put this into perspective, the next closest was Herle with 15.1.
“I remember him asking where he should be icing his arm when we told him to ice it incase we needed him to pitch again the next day,” Cey said. “He didn't know where to ice it because it just seems like he didn't get tired and his arm doesn't get sore. It is nice to have a lefty like that who has had a lot of baseball success in this league and on other baseball teams throughout his career.”
Other than Schell and Herle, Robert Cey will get more opportunities to start with the season going three games longer in 2016. Coach Cey believes veterans like Bye Braun and some of their new additions will also get some looks on the mound.
Wilkie will be seeing just three players not returning to the green and white this upcoming season. Rhyne Keller, Mitch Nielsen and former NSRBL MVP Nick Pernitsky will be hanging up the cleats. Cey says this will give their new additions more opportunity to play. Newly acquired Tristan Huber and Dustin Saracini will be looking to make an impact with the Brewers.
“The Brewers are made up of a competitive group of guys, who always like to go and have fun, but it seems when it comes time to play everyone knows what they have to do and are focused on helping the team be successful.” Cey added, “Playing in the NSRBL is exciting because you pretty much know all the others teams lineups and pitchers and know what to expect, but you just have to make sure you execute, play smart baseball, limit your team's mistakes and try and take advantage of the other team's mistakes.
Their season kicks off May 24 against the Midwest Expos.
