CANMORE – The Bow Valley Blues are in rhythm to start the 2022 season and with dangerous bats and killer arms will go for its first championship in three years.
In Tuesday night’s (May 24) main event against the Calgary North Reds at Millennium Park in Canmore, the veteran Blues baseball squad took care of business in a 7-3 victory to improve to 3-1.
Despite playing only a handful of games the past two seasons due to the pandemic, the Blues core group is playing at its highest level in years.
“It’s definitely a stronger team than we have had in the past, for sure,” said head coach Luke Gauvreau.
“The team has come a long way because it’s been four years or five years of hard practice, team learning and bonding. They’re a stronger team and have been paying more attention [to the game].”
Blues first baseman and menace at the plate, Torin Young, who drove in two runs in the first of Tuesday’s game, said the team’s put in a lot of hours behind the scenes for this season and is committed in making the next step.
“We’ve been together for a lot of years,” said Young, 21. “We all hang out with each other on and off the field, it’s a great core group of guys and we’re all brothers, to be totally honest, and it’s something I hope to continue to grow and take on for the rest of my life ‘cause it’s a wicked group of boys both on and off the field.”
With only 12 games on the regular season schedule, Gauvreau said the team's batting isn’t quite at its peak yet, but can go blow-for-blow with the Calgary North Baseball League (CNBL) best.
However, bullpen depth is something the coach is keeping a closer eye on.
“Our pitching is strong, but we’re short staffed,” said Gauvreau. “That kind of adds up when it becomes time like later in the playoffs and the round robin just because you start to pitch out and there’s pitch limits, but I would say we have a very strong pitching staff, we just need a few more.”
To ease some pressure, the Blues added a few new additions including pitcher Wyatt Rogi, a second-year player for the University of Calgary Dinos.
Throwing heat and sliders for the Blues is long-time ace Matt Arsenault, who struck out eight batters and had a complete game on Tuesday.
The 21-year-old pitcher cruised over five innings, but had some added pressure when the bases were juiced in the top half of the sixth and final inning.
With the game-tying run at the plate and two outs, Arsenault got the game’s final batter to ground out to first.
“I knew I could get these guys if I’m on my A-game,” said Arsenault, who improved his record to 2-0. “I just needed to trust myself [at the final at-bat].”
The veteran Blues arm is eyeing another championship, or championships, before he ages out of Big League.
Arsenault was part of the Blues 2019 championship team of the CNBL, pitching in the title-clenching game against the Calgary Vipers.
“Everyone’s hitting from top to bottom [this season], pitching has been great and we just need to keep going,” said Arsenault.
The game-winning out was the second biggest cheer at the home game.
Pinch hitter Teagan Young, the lone woman on the Blues roster, had the crowd jumping when she nearly hit a single before fouling right of first base.
The brother and sister Youngs also tasted glory in June 2019 with the Blues and are all-in on another championship.
The first baseman brother bleeds with Blues pride, even sporting a giant team flag off the back of his vehicle.
“We want to win games and we want to all play well,” Young said. “All of us are willing to put in that work and effort and it’s something that we want to win games but we want to do it in the right way and we don’t want to just get by, we want to win games.”
The Blues next home game at Millennium Park is Saturday (May 28) at 3 p.m.
The Bow Valley Little League, which has teams and programs from Tim Bit (age four) to Big League (U21), set a milestone with a record 180 registrations in 2022, rising in numbers every season for at least six years.
