It should be quite a summer for area diamond spectators with two local teams competing in the South West Baseball League.
Virden rejoins the Senior AA loop after an eight-year absence. Meanwhile the Elkhorn Expos are back for another summer after a very successful debut season.
Nine teams will be battling for the SWBL crown. As well as the Oilers and Expos, the SWBL also includes the Hartney Hoppers, Wawanesa Brewers, Deloraine Royals, Hamiota Red
Sox, Boissevain Centennials, Reston Jays, and Souris Cardinals.
Virden Oilers
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.” The decision in 2013 that the next season would be the final one for the Reston Rockets in the Manitoba Senior
Baseball League set in motion the return of the Oilers to the SWBL. With four Virdenites on the Rockets soon to not have a baseball home, Des Koop, Brett Braybrook and Kerry Sawyer began
talking about senior baseball returning to the Oil Capital of Manitoba.
In 2005, the Oilers won the SWBL pennant and made it all the way to the provincial finals. The next season was the Oilers’ last before the team returned earlier this month. Virden has
opened the season 2-0.
The Oilers beat Souris, 11-4, and got by the Expos 8-7. Entering into the season, Koop, the Oilers manager, said pitching looked to be the club’s strength. The squad has four pitchers who have
thrown in the MSBL and a couple others who have been standouts at the senior AA level.
“The pitching staff is very deep as far as AA baseball goes,” Koop wrote in an email interview. “We have six pitchers that we could go to at any point and can be effective. This is a huge bonus as many teams only have three, maybe four pitchers.”
The Oilers will have a couple high school aged players, but most of the team has played at the AA, AAA, or college level.
“The other strength is that the team is made up of various aged players from age of 17- 34 that have all won championships at different levels of baseball so that experience will be a huge
benefit to the team,” Koop wrote.
The Oilers roster includes: Landon Peel, Brett Braybrook, Austin Brereton, Tyler Campbell, Danny Cochrane, Karlin Desautels, Marc Fleury, Matt Haggarty, Kris Kinnard, Jake Kitto, Des Koop, Tanner Lewis, Travis Paton, Jeff Peel, Brady Potter, Tyler Reiner, Zane Sawyer, Tyler Strachan, and Aaron Tycoles.
Elkhorn Expos
Last summer the expansion Expos turned heads by earning a berth into the provincial tournament. With most of the team’s core returning and a year of experience under their collective belts, Elkhorn manager Dennis Kyle said the team is looking for similar success this season. One of the key player’s back is Bradley Bowles. The standout junior hockey player was the SWBL’s Rookie of the Year last year. Miniota’s Nat Howard joins the Expos after playing the last number of seasons for Oak River in the MSBL.
The Expos have fallen 14-10 to Hamiota, 8-7 to Virden, and 2-1 to Hartney to start the season. “ As far as team strengths, we have to rely on our team defence which so far this year has
let us down,” Kyle wrote in an email interview.
“We have started out 0-3 but with any luck we could have been just as easily been 3-0. “The league has such great parity that on any given night any team could beat any team. With this being a working man’s league, if you don't show up with a full roster chances are you will be coming out on the short end of the stick.”
The Expos roster includes Brad Bowles, Jason Bowles, Shawn Bowles, Nat Howard, Bryce Kyle, Dennis Kyle, Tanner Kyle, Josh Martin, Kevin Martin, Jordan Mitchell, Brett
Orr, Taylor Sanheim, Mike Stevenson, Devrin Stonehouse, Dillin Stonehouse, Mike Volk, and Tyler Wood.
