The Red Deer Riggers season came to an end Thursday night after losing 4-1 to the St. Albert Tigers.
In a must-win game three in the Sunburst Baseball League semi-finals at Gulls Stadium in Sylvan Lake Rees DeRuyter got the start for the Riggers and pitched for six solid innings andonly arrowed one run on four hits before Kai Poffenroth came in relief in the final inning.
In the the top of the seventh inning after Poffenroth came in the Riggers put themselves in a tough situation with the bases loaded twice, the Tigers scored three runs to take the lead.
Earlier in the game, the Tigers got out to an early 1-0 lead in the second inning before Josh Edwards tied it up in the bottom of the fourth with a massive home run over the centre field wall.
The Riggers got to this point after they forced a game three winning 9-4 in St. Albert Wednesday night.
Riggers manager Jaret Chatwood said his team, who only had three hits all game, just didn’t really capitalize early.
“We had our opportunities and just made a couple mental mistakes and then our bats went a little bit quiet but hats off to them they played a hell of a game,” Chatwood said.
Looking back at the regular season the Riggers finished second in the league behind the Sherwood Park Athletics with a record of 11-8.
Chatwood said they overcame a lot of adversity with a few injuries at the start of the year.
“To get here and play the way we did, yeah we played pretty well,” he said. “We have the best fans in the league they come out all the time supporting us for years so It’s nice when we can come out and win for them but unfortunately it doesn’t happen all the time.”
The Tigers will now face the Sherwood Park Athletics in the Sunburst League final.
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Riggers pitcher Rees DeRuyter threw for six innings during game three of the semi-finals against the St. Albert Tigers Thursday night. (Photo by Ian Gustafson/ Advocate staff)
