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Bantam Braves off to excellent start to the AAA season

Considering they have only one player returning from last season the Red Deer Servus Credit Union Braves are off to an excellent start to the provincial bantam AAA baseball regular season.
Bantam AAA Baseball 120513jer
Even though Lloydminster's Ryland Soychutle was able to make the tag at second

Considering they have only one player returning from last season the Red Deer Servus Credit Union Braves are off to an excellent start to the provincial bantam AAA baseball regular season.

The Braves won three of four starts at Great Chief Park during the weekend and sit with a 3-2 record.

“I’ve been really impressed how focused the kids are,” said head coach Mark Kryczka.

“They came in swinging the bats and the pitching has been solid. The guys are composed and throwing strikes. We’ve been in every game.”

The Braves opened the season with a 10-9 loss to the highly rated Okotoks Black, a game called early because of bad weather.

This weekend the weather was perfect and the Braves were just as hot as they beat the Okotoks Red 9-5 and the Sherwood Park Green 18-6 Saturday before losing 8-3 to Edmonton and beating Lloydminster 10-2 Sunday.

“We came into the weekend hoping to split and were 3-1 and really we had one bad (five-run) inning against Edmonton,” said Kryczka, who has only Brendan Baker back from last year’s squad.

Five players moved up from the provincial bantam AA champion Red Deer Braves, on which Mark Kryczka was an assistant coach with Mike Lyons head coach.

Lyons is an assistant this year along with Greg LeBlanc and Dean Otto. Tracey Ozga is manager.

David Coley, Kyle Kryczka, Kane LeBlanc, Matt Lyons and Michael Ozga all played bantam AA with Red Deer while Spencer Otto, Kacey Straub and Ty Wagar played bantam AA in Lacombe.

Kyle Ringdahl played midget in Delburne last season while Kelsey Lalor and Ethan Ropcean moved up from the peewee AAA program.

The 12-player roster is just perfect, according to the head coach.

“If you get 13 or more you seem to have too many players and someone is on the bench and not getting the playing time and doesn’t seem part of the team.

“We’ve been down to 10 players at times this season because of injuries, not associated with baseball, but if we’re healthy it’s a good number.”

The coaching staff put together a roster that sees all 12 players able to pitch if need be with at least 10 of them expected to see they share of mound duties.

The Braves showed during the weekend they also have the speed to force things on the base paths.

“We took a few too many liberties when we got ahead, but overall from what I’ve seen we’re one of the fastest teams in the league,” said Kryczka, who likes the team’s defence and offensive capabilities.

“We have outstanding defence. The only errors we’ve made have been throwing errors and that will come once we settle down. Also I wasn’t worried about our offence. You never know what kind of pitching you’ll face, but we focused on that during tryouts and we spend at least 30 minutes a practice on it.”

Where the Braves will eventually finish this season won’t be determined for some time, but Kryczka believes they can play with anyone.

“Okotoks Black are always a strong and we’ve been right with them in the two games we’ve faced them and Edmonton is deep in pitching, but I believe we’ll be with them as well.”

The Braves will compete in the St. Albert Early Bird tournament this weekend and will get a chance to see several of the other top teams.

Ozga started against Lloydminster and allowed two runs over four innings with Otto going the final three.

Ropcean had a single, double and walk while LeBlanc had triple, Coley and Wagar added two singles and a walk each and Ringdahl a double and a walk.

Baker scored twice against Edmonton and had a single, home run and a walk against Sherwood Park.

Otto added a single, triple and walk, Kryczka a triple and walk and Wagar two walks against Sherwood Park.

The Braves host the Okotoks Red Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Great Chief Park.

• In bantam AA action, the Red Deer Boston Pizza Braves beat Drayton Valley 16-11 Saturday and lost 10-3 to Olds Sunday in Camrose.

drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com