The Virden Oilers and the Oak River Dodgers met in a best-of-three South West Baseball League quarterfinals series.
As the No. 4 seed, Virden had the home field advantage. The Oilers hosted Oak River on July 19 and Oak River prevailed scoring 22 runs to Virden’s 6. Oilers had an opportunity to tie the series July 21 in Oak River, but were not able to bring the series home, losing 10-4. (see game coverage here)
Offensively, Virden is led by committee this season. Seven players drove in at least six runs – led by Keifer Johnston’s 10. Among Oilers with at least 20 at-bats, the Lewis brothers had the team’s best batting averages – Braeden (.372) and Tanner (.333). Braeden Lewis and Toby Troughton were tied for second in the SWBL in stolen bases with seven each. On the mound, Curtis Plett led Virden with three wins. He had a .430 earned run average.
Brayden Heapy paced the Dodgers with 12 runs batted in this season. Ty Paddock was dangerous on the mound (team-best three wins and a 1.38 earned run average) and at the plate (batting .444).
The Oilers won both of their games this season against the Dodgers – outscoring them 16-3. However, that does not give a true picture of how tight things are in the SWBL.
Virden, Oak River and Wawanesa all finished with 6-8 records in the regular season. This created a three-way tie for fourth place behind Boissevain (12-0), Deloraine (11-3) and Hamiota (8-6). Head-to-head record was used to determine the fourth through sixth seeds. By virtue of sweeping Oak River and going 1-1 against Wawanesa, the Oilers got the fourth seed. As Oak River beat Wawanesa, 2-0, it slotted in at fifth.
Hamiota plays No. 6 Wawanesa in the other quarterfinals series. Rivers (5-9) and Reston (2-12) missed the postseason.
Reston Rockets
The Rockets’ two victories this summer came in vastly different ways. They beat Rivers, 1-0, on the road with John Patmore throwing the shutout. He struck out 12. The Rockets’ other win came in an 18-5 romp over Oak River with the Reston squad collecting 21 hits. Billy Patmore and Brady Frattinger of Elkhorn hit home runs for the Rockets in that contest.
“I think our youth was apparent throughout the season,” player/organizer John Patmore said. “We have lots of good things to look forward to as our core matures and this season was great for the development of our younger players.”
Derrus Gray paced Reston with a .438 batting average. Of players with more than 20 at-bats, Nolan Jago was tops at .429. Frattinger batted .393. Brothers John and Billy Patmore led the squad with 11 RBIs each. John Patmore had a team-best 3.39 ERA and struck out 45 in 33 innings.
