By Jeff D'Andrea

Astros learn valuable lesson heading into nationals

Aug 4, 2012 | 8:33 AM

Up 8-4 over the Ricky’s Blue Jays, the Prince Albert Midget Astros were just half an inning away from reaching the finals of the Sportsman’s Fastball League—the senior men’s league the Astros play in to prepare for the 2012 Pepsi U18 Men’s Championships in Fredericton, NB Aug. 6-12.

But, the Astros collapsed in the bottom of the seventh, giving up five runs and losing 9-8 to Ricky’s. As a result, they came out flat for their next game against RWCC and were mercied 10-0 after five innings.

Although Monday didn’t go anywhere near to plan, the Astros may have earned a valuable lesson; not letting mistakes affect the next play, or the next game.

“This is the type of thing that can’t happen at a tournament like nationals,” said Astros head coach Kalen Kovitch. “It’s a long week and if you let one loss lead to another, it leads to another, and another, and another. Next thing you know, the playoffs have passed you by and you’re done really early.”

“They’ve had success against both those teams this year, I think they got a little overconfident,” Kovitch said. “They let mental mistakes in the field lead to bigger let downs to turn into losses. It’s something they’re going to have to learn to deal with if they’re going to have success in Fredericton.”

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Although Monday did not go as planned, Kovitch has a strong belief his team can recover and overcome adversity.

They already have this year as the Astros beat the Saskatoon Selects 3-1 in a best of five series to win the provincials, after previously going winless against them in the regular season.

“Just look at what we did against our competition in provincials. We didn’t beat them once all year… I’m very confident this group can bounce back from these games, like I told them all year, this doesn’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things,” Kovitch said. “We’re going after a midget national title, the midget provincial title we already have. We’re focused on Fredericton.

“As crushing as this might be right now … when we get on that plane to go to nationals, we’re going to be 100 per cent focused on playing ball.”

jdandrea@panow.com

Twitter: @jeff_dandrea