Cape Breton Senior Islanders take balanced approach into Eastern Canadian Baseball Championship in Ontario

The Cape Breton Senior Islanders hope having a little bit of everything can lead them to a national championship series later this month in Alberta. First, the Sydney-based baseball team will need to earn their way to the national event when they participate in the Senior Little League Canada Eastern Regional Championship this week in [...]

The Cape Breton Senior Islanders hope having a little bit of everything can lead them to a national championship series later this month in Alberta. First, the Sydney-based baseball team will need to earn their way to the national event when they participate in the Senior Little League Canada Eastern Regional Championship this week in Oakville, Ont. The nine-team tournament will begin on Thursday and run until July 23 at Glen Abbey Community Centre.

Along with the Islanders, the event will feature seven teams from Ontario and one club from Quebec. It’s the first year for the regional tournament format. In previous years, the Atlantic Canada representative automatically attended the national tournament.

Instead, Little League Canada will hold two regional tournaments — one in the Eastern Region and one in the Western Region. The winner of those events will meet in the Canadian championship in a best-of-three series on July 25-27 in Fort MacLeod, Alta. BENEFIT PITCHING Despite it not being a national tournament, Islanders head coach Ricky Wiseman said the club is approaching the event like previous years.

“It’s pretty much the same thing, and it’s the way we’re going to approach it,” said Wiseman. “The difference between this event and the nationals, in the national tournament you play almost every day, but this tournament we play every second day.” With not having to play every day, Wiseman believes it will be a benefit to the Cape Breton club as it will help with how the club prepares its pitching staff.

“It’s great for our pitching,” said Wiseman. “We can put ourselves in pretty good shape. Should we get to a semifinal or final, our pitching should be in pretty good shape, so from that perspective, the approach is a little bit different, but it’s still the same thing.”

The Islanders have upwards of eight pitchers going into the tournament. Wiseman recognized the club has some big arms but also has players who can provide innings at any point of the event. “Our pitching should match up with anybody,” said Wiseman, noting his club is also strong defensively.

“We’re going to run into some ringers there, but I think we should match up pretty much with anybody.” In preparation for the tournament, the Islanders have been playing in the Baseball Nova Scotia under-18 AA Bluenose League. The club has only played a handful of games to date.

While pitching and defence are the club’s strengths, Wiseman said the one area that hasn’t shown its strength at this point of the season has been its offence, but he hopes that will change this week. “We have some pretty big boys and some really decent hitters, but we haven’t put it together yet,” he said, noting the club practices three to four times a week. “We’re hitting, every day it seems to be somebody different, so hopefully when we get there, we can get the top and middle of our lineup hot — it can carry us a long way.”

‘BIG BATS’ Like Wiseman, catcher Andrew MacIntyre has faith in the team’s offence. “It will come,” said MacIntyre. “We have big bats and we know they’ll wake up in time for the tournament.”

The 17-year-old MacIntyre, who started as catcher when he was 11 years old, said he expects the team to compete and have a deep run in the event. “We have to stick to what we’re good at, which is defence,” said MacIntyre. “We have to make contact, and we have to put the ball in play and if we can do that we should be able to win it.”

Cape Breton will play in Pool B of the tournament along with the Ottawa West Twins, Upper Ottawa Valley River Cats and the On Field Royals, a club based out of the Ottawa region. Meanwhile, Pool A will include the host Oakville Whitecaps, Timmins Lynx, Carleton Russell and Ancaster Diamondbacks, all of Ontario, as well as the Quebec-based Diamond Baseball. The Islanders will open the tournament on Thursday at 1 p.m., against Upper Ottawa Valley, before facing Ottawa West on Saturday at 4 p.m.

The club will finish the round robin on Monday against the On Field Royals at 4 p.m. Wiseman said Ryan White or Landen Leyte will get the ball to open the tournament against the River Cats. “It could be a combination of both in the game at some point,” he said.

“We’re not going to use somebody to run them, unless it really calls for it, but we have a luxury with a day off between each game. We can probably get through a game with two or three pitchers.” The tournament semifinal games are slated for 11 a.m., and 1 p.m., on July 22.

The championship game will be at 11 a.m., on July 23. All game times are Atlantic time. As for the Western Region championship tournament, the event will begin on Friday and run until July 23 in Fort MacLeod.

Tournament information was not made available by Little League Canada. CAPE BRETON ISLANDERS SCHEDULE: – Thursday – 1 p.m. – Vs. Upper Ottawa Valley River Rats (Ontario) – Saturday – 4 p.m. – Vs.

Ottawa West Twins (Ontario) – Monday – 4 p.m. – Vs. On Field Royals (Ontario) – July 22 – 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. – Semifinal Games * – July 23 – 11 a.m. – Championship Game * * Team must qualify to play in those games Note: All game times are Atlantic time. The rain date is July 21.

————————————————— CAPE BRETON ISLANDERS ROSTER: – Players: Colby Viva, Andrew MacIntyre, Brendan Young, Breslin Marshall, Jordan O’Neill, Josh Kendall, Ryan White, Jamie Morrison, Cameron MacIntyre, Landon Pickup, Owen O’Brien, Landen Leyte and Noah Tremblett – Coaching Staff: Ricky Wiseman (head coach), Christien Marshall (assistant coach), Brian MacIntyre (assistant coach) and Bradley Leyte (assistant coach)