Three wins and a sealed up second-place league ranking meant it was a good week for the Marysburg Royals last week.The senior baseball team managed to win all three league games they played after coming in third at Provincials just over a week ago. "It is always hard coming back to play after Provincials because there is always a letdown," said player Curtis Strueby, "but this year, the boys played well enough to get three wins." Marysburg's first game was against the Saskatoon Smoking Guns, a team they defeated 4-3 in eight innings. Down 3-0 going into the sixth, the Royals managed to tie the game and win it in extra innings.It was a very solid, complete game by pitcher Matthew Strueby. He did not give up an earned run - all three of the Guns' runs were the result of the one error the Royals made in the game. Offensively, Luke Strueby and Colin Bauml had two hits a piece with Luke driving in the winning run. The Royals then hosted their last doubleheader on their home field at Marysburg, which has finally dried up. They played the Saskatoon Outlaws, the team sitting in first place in the league.The Royals beat the Outlaws in the first game by a score of 4-1.
Jesse Johb threw five innings to get the win and Paul Strueby pitched the final two to get the save. "We played very well in the field, not making any errors," said Strueby. "We managed to only have five hits, but two were homeruns off the bats of Brent Puetz and Geoff Strueby." In the second game, the Royals defeated the Outlaws by a score of 6-3. Josh Johb threw five innings to get the win and Brett Yarskie threw the last two to get the save. The Royals only made one error in this contest, and the bats were a little better, belting out eight hits. Aaron Strueby hit a homerun and Luke and Curtis Strueby each had two hits and a couple of runs batted in. "It was a great way to end the regular season as we finished up in second place with a 13-7 record behind the 14-6 Outlaws," Strueby noted. The Royals now play the defending league champs, the Smoking Guns, in playoffs this week in a best of three semi final series. The games, set for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, will all be held in Saskatoon. Though the Royals as a team will not be playing in the upcoming Western Canada Baseball Senior AA championships in Muenster on August 12-15, some of their members have been chosen to play with teams at Westerns. Brent Puetz will be playing with the Saskatoon Outlaws, while Curtis Strueby, Luke Strueby, Russ Nielson, Colin Bauml, and Marty Yeager will be joining the Muenster Red Sox.
