It may not have been the end of the season the Muenster Midget AAA Red Sox were looking for, but the club showcased plenty of promise for the future in a rebuilding year for the club.
“We had a young team compared to the last few years so from game one to the end of the year it was a vast improvement throughout the year. So overall I was happy with the year,” said Red Sox coach Chad Hofmann.
After losing all but five players to graduation over the offseason, the Red Sox brought a significantly younger squad to the table to begin 2018, with just four regular third years on the roster.
The youthfulness of the club showed through the early part of the season, as the Red Sox opened the year with a win before losing seven of their next eight.
By the end of May, the Red Sox were sitting with a record of just 3-8.
“There were very few kids who were holdovers from the previous year and we had lots of first year players as well as some other guys who haven’t played at that level before. So it took a while for them to get used to it,” said Hofmann.
With the club gaining experience with every contest, the young Red Sox began turning their season around in June winning their first two contests, and wrapping up the month 5-4.
Muenster continued their season turnaround over the final month of the season, as the Red Sox posted a 6-4 record in July, bringing the club’s final regular season record to 14-16.
The overall record left the Red Sox as the league’s sixth seed.
With the club improving as the season wore on Hofmann says heading into provincials the team’s goal was to play on Sunday, the final day of the three-day provincial tournament.
After a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to the eventual provincial champion Saskatoon Cubs, the Red Sox rebounded to beat the second seeded Regina White Sox, and knock off the Swift Current 57s in comeback fashion.
Thanks to their 2-1 record, the Red Sox wrapped up the round robin in a tie with the White Sox and Cubs.
The Cubs, thanks to a tiebreaker, were given the top seed in the pool, while the White Sox and Red Sox were left to battle for the final spot in the semi-finals.
Unfortunately for the Red Sox one bad inning ended their season as they fell 17-7 to the White Sox.
Despite the loss, Hofmann says reflecting on their weekend, he is very pleased with their effort.
“Looking back if we would have ended up winning (against the Cubs) we would have avoided all tiebreakers and we would have had all of our pitching for Sunday. You never know what would have happened,” lamented Hofmann.
With the season now complete, the Red Sox head into an offseason where they will see five players including Rylan Marianchuk, Drew Bauml, Carter Burkart, Nicholas Silcox and Tyler McWillie, all age out of midget baseball.
The Red Sox gained valuable experience this season, particularly with their run to the provincial tiebreaking game, and Hofmann says that experience will serve crucial as the club heads into next season.
“One-year experience is huge. There’s very few players in the four years I’ve been involved with coaching in this league… where a first year player is really a major impact player. There’s only been a handful of kids do that over those number of years,” he said.
“They might be a little bit younger again next year... but they’re going to be just fine.”
Heading into the offseason, Hofmann said one of the aspects of their game he would like to see improved is their defensive effort, where the club struggled at times this season.
“Pitching and defense wins so many championships or keeps you in games. Defensively we had some times where we had some mistakes... there’s plenty of errors in the game so you just try to make as few mistakes as possible. Sometimes it doesn’t work that way but… you have to keep working at it and more reps will make things better.”
After another season of Red Sox baseball, Hofmann would once again like to thank the parents and players for their commitment throughout the season.
“They did a fantastic job with it. It was a really fun group to coach. It was a different group because some of them I’ve never coached before and it took some time but they got along really well with each other.”
