The North Saskatchewan River Baseball League is down to the final two teams and once again those two teams are the Lloydminster Meridian Twins and Wilkie Brewers.
The two-time defending champion Twins punched their ticket to the final after knocking off the Lloydminster Junior Redhawks in two straight games. The Twins won 10-6 Tuesday and followed that up with a 9-3 win Wednesday.
Wilkie also won their series in two straight games, but in a much closer fashion. After winning game one 3-2 in Wilkie, the teams played a week later using the same starting pitchers.
For the second time in the series, the Brewers won by a run and for the second time Brad Frehlich was the winning pitcher with Barrett Nielsen earning the save and Quincy Winkler pitching the complete game for Meadow Lake while suffering the loss.
Tuesday in Meadow Lake, the White Sox were coming off winning the senior A2 provincial championship and took an early lead on Wilkie, going up 2-0 after the first inning.
The Brewers responded when the designated hitter Nick Pernitsky did just that - hitting a double down the left field line to score two runs.
The teams battled back and forth and Meadow Lake scored another run off Frehlich before he left in the fifth inning.
Wilkie's third and fourth runs were eerily similar, as Russ Nielsen and Rick Cey both got on base stole second and third and scored on a passed ball. That was the difference, as Barrett Nielsen earned the save after pitching 2.1 innings and preserving the 4-3 victory.
The semi final wins advance the first and second place teams through to the final where the Twins and Brewers will meet for the ninth straight time. Since that streak began in 2003, both teams have won the championship four times and since 1998 Wilkie and Lloydminster have each won the championship six times. Standard Hill is the only team to win other than Wilkie and Lloydminster since 1998 and they so during the 1999 season.
This series sets up the ultimate rubber match, as the Twins haven't lost a game since the regular season in 2009.
Also an interesting note is that in the previous seven championships, the trophy has been handed out in Wilkie each year - either won in game two or game three of the series.
Wilkie and Lloydminster will likely start the series early next week and set up the schedule with three games in three days with a 6 p.m. start times.
