Battered Baycats fall fast to Twins

Sports

IBL

Posted By STEPHEN SWEET, SPECIAL TO THE EXAMINER

Posted 1 month ago

Managing your long-term investments ahead of your short-term ones works not only in business, but baseball too.

That's pretty much the strategy for the banged-up Barrie Baycats right now as they fight their way towards the postseason.

And as they enter the struggle towards a second consecutive pennant, the Baycats are doing so without a lot of big names.

"It's really tough, because we're trying to get higher in the standings at the end here, so we've been playing our best players and tough luck, they're getting injured."

Dave Latour and Matt Richardson were amongst those unable to play on Thursday night as the Baycats fell 8-2 to the Mississauga Twins at Meadowvale Sports Park.

Those players contributed to Barrie's strong start this year, but a hamstring injury for Latour and concussion for Richardson have left Roy with far fewer options.

"We got off to a hot start this year, but we've run into injury problems as of late, and it's been decimating our lineup," Roy said.

That's an understatement for a club that had just seven position players available for Thursday's tilt.

Left-handed reliever Doug Dimma started the game in right field, while fellow pitcher Adam Garner took on the designated hitter role.

And to Dimma's credit, he went 2-for-3 at the plate with a single, double, run, and hit by pitch.

But these emergency manoeuvres have made Roy a realist about his chances.

"To be honest, we're not worried about the pennant right now," he said. "Our main concern is playing good baseball and getting healthy."

With the loss, Barrie (20-13) drops to 1.5 games behind the division-leading Brantford Red Sox, with the Toronto Maple Leafs just a half game back of the leaders.

So while the pennant becomes a less realistic goal, playoff placing remains a key factor for the Baycats.

"Being able to win the pennant is secondary to positioning as far as who you're going to play in the first round," Price said.

"You don't want to be playing a tough team like Guelph, which is still a possibility. Ideally, you'd rather be playing a weaker and less-experienced team."

And despite falling to Mississauga (16-17) Thursday night, Price still likes the idea of facing them in the playoffs.

"They would be a great matchup," Price said. "They're young kids, so we don't know what they can bring to the table, but we do know that we have better pitching and hitting than them (when we're healthy)."

Most guys are getting close to 100%, but Roy would rather be safe than sorry.

"All my guys that are hurt could probably go if this were the playoffs, but I've been holding guys back longer than we might need to in order to make sure that we're healthy going into the playoffs," Roy said.

The Barrie skipper knows that he needs his full crew in order to make a serious title challenge.

"We have some guys that we're not going to win the whole thing without if they're not healthy," Roy said.

"That's what happened last year, when (Ryan) Spataro and (Glenn) Jackson got injured, and then we had the whole debacle with the league and the suspension rule with (Paul) Spoljaric that did us in."

And while facing opponents with an undermanned squad is difficult for the competitive Roy to take, he knows what's ultimately best for his team.

"It's tough, because we've been losing ballgames that I think we could have won, but I'm not going to jeopardize the long-term goals of this club for a few regular-season games," Roy said.

"I like our chances in the playoffs more being healthy and finishing third than being unhealthy and having a few guys out (to injury) and winning the pennant."

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