Record setting night at the dish paces Edmonton Prospects to big win

The 2021 season for your Edmonton Prospects began with 16-8 victory to open the new Gulls Stadium in Sylvan Lake. After a rain out in Okotoks, the Prospects defeated the Sylvan Lake Gulls again 12-10 in ten innings. Coming “home” to host  their first game on Wednesday, the offense put on a show for the faithful fans attending the game at Henry Singer Park in Spruce Grove. Of course, home is in parenthesis as the team awaits their new Spruce Grove Metro Ballpark to be built.

24 runs were placed on the scoreboard setting an unofficial single game scoring mark for the Club. It’s unofficial as the Western Canadian Baseball League stats only go back to 2010 and the Prospects have been playing since 2005. The two previous high scores for the Club were both in 2018. On June 30th they defeated Melville 21-3, then on July 17th the Club defeated Regina 20-6.

The Okotoks Dawgs Black, in this special year of only five teams Okotoks is fielding two of them, opened the scoring in the top of the 1st inning. Prospects starting pitcher Wyatt Anderson gave up back-to-back doubles to start the game. Anderson would turn in six innings of work for the evening allowing only one more Dawgs run. His final two innings of work being his strongest minimizing traffic on the bases.

When Anderson departed the game the score was 5-2 for the Prospects. An 11-run 7th inning followed by an 8-run 8th inning sent the score into the record books.

Luciano Letteri, batting 9th in the lineup, homered in the bottom of the 3rd to score the first Prospects run. Letteri would lead off the bottom of the 6th with a single and would score what would be the first of four runs in that frame.

The scoring in the bottom of the 7th started with a 3-run home run by Matty Reyes. RBI hits by Robert Holmes (single),  Brendan Luther (single), Trent Lawson (ground rule double) punctuated the 11-run inning.

Run scoring singles by Lawson, Reyes, Jonny McGill (subbed in for Holmes in the top of the 8th) and Conor Bronson highlighted the 8-run 8th inning.

NEXT UP:

The Edmonton Prospects home becomes Centennial Park Field 9 in Sherwood Park tonight (June 24) and tomorrow (June 25). Thursday night’s match pits the 3-1 Prospects versus the 2-2 Sylvan Lake Gulls. Friday night’s match sees Okotoks Dawgs Red pay a visit. Follow the Prospects on Facebook for ticket information during these fluid times.

New Adult Mixed Lacrosse Recreational League

“We have always had the idea to start up a recreational lacrosse league but never had the means. By means, it was the issue of floor time. We did not and do not want to steal time from minor lacrosse but with the addition of new facilities we are able to begin this new adventure. There is a gap that exists for recreational lacrosse players who simply want to have fun. Former players who are done with the travelling and the late nights. Players over the age of 18 and of varying skill sets who wish to play without being beaten to a pulp then having to go to work the next morning.“

The “we” in the above statement is Chris Standing and Stu Sterparn. They are the co-owners and the executives in charge of league operations of the new recreational lacrosse league named the Adult Mixed Lacrosse (AML).

“The AML will be an indoor all-inclusive co-ed lacrosse league. The league will be mixing box lacrosse and field lacrosse rules to make the game more exciting.

By amending box lacrosse rules to take some of the physicality out of the game but keeping stick checking legal the focus of the game shifts. The new rules shift the focus onto both the speed of the game and player safety – similar to the new Olympic rules – lots of movement, less physical contact.

A 3 slash rule & full time served for penalties will look to keep the roughness out of the game. We really want to showcase the skills of the sport as opposed to the brute force.

We are a fully insured and licensed league. The AML will provide an on-site trainer for taping and minor injuries as well as all required game day staff. Truly a show up and play league!“

How and when?

The season starts Wednesday, August 4th and will play every Wednesday until September 20th. 3 games per night with the first game starting at 6:30 PM and last game ending at 10:30 PM. All games will be played out of the Beaumont Recreation Centre, home of the Beaumont Outlaws.

Games will be three 20-minute run time periods played on turf not concrete.

Recommended team size is 16 players. Game will be played using a 5×5 format plus a goalie. There are no co-ed limits, your team can be all male or all female or co-ed.

“Referees will be trained under our certified rule book. Each team will get a copy and it will be on our soon-to-be website. If one has not played field lacrosse, some of the rules may take a game or two to adjust to but overall we are not re-inventing the wheel.”

Registration is already open through AdultMixedLacrosse@gmail.com. First team to pay for their registration in full will receive a team set of Under Armour slash guards courtesy of the Beaumont Outlaws.

The AML website is still under construction, if you have any questions for Chris or Stu, they can be sent through the e-mail listed above.

Stay tuned for more updates. Meanwhile shake the dust off of your lacrosse stick, call your buddies and get yourself ready for some Wednesday night recreational lacrosse.

Edmonton Stingers Statistical Leaders

The Stingers first game in Edmonton since 2019 is mere days away. The Canadian Elite Basketball League’s 3rd season starts tomorrow when Niagara visits Ottawa (for their first ever game on their own court!)

I’ve always been a numbers guy. Feeling a little disappointed with the lack of stat info available to the public, I started collecting it on my own. Until they improve, I’ll continue to stat dump on my unofficial collection of CEBL stats (found here).

Let’s dig into some of the franchise leaders from our previous 2 seasons!

Below you’ll find the total points leaders. (Active players for the 2021 season are highlighted in yellow.)

Xavier Moon is 1 game and 16 points behind Ricky Tarrant Jr. for the All-Time points leader of the CEBL. It won’t take long for former teammate Travis Daniels to get into the top 2 either. Kamba had a slow start to 2019, but has improved considerably since then. One other thing, Peter-McNeilly should have 291 points, but he was robbed on a BLATANT MISSED GOALTENDING CALL IN THE SUMMER SERIES FINAL (I’m still bitter about it)

Jordan Baker is a rebounding monster. He leads the CEBL in total rebounds with 231 and rebounds per game with 9.2. It’ll be difficult to average over 9 per game with new teammates Brady Skeen and Marlon Johnson, but maybe he’ll surprise us!

Moon is 2nd in total CEBL assists. Marek Klassen of the Bandits has racked up 135 in 2 seasons. Ultimate “glue-guy” Baker is approaching 100 and I expect Peter-McNeilly and Kamba to continue to climb the CEBL ranks.

Travis Daniels lead the Summer Series with 12 blocks. Unfortunately he’s taking his talents to Saskatchewan. Marlon Johnson should climb this list very quickly, and also note that Kappos had 2 blocks to crack the Stingers top 10 in limited minutes last summer.

Moon leads the CEBL with 43 total steals, he lead the CEBL in 2019 with 2.2 steals per game. This entire defense thrives on creating turnovers as Kamba, Baker and Peter-McNeilly all earn steals at a high rate as well.

Field goals stats mostly match the point totals. Moon leads the CEBL with 155 made shots, and shooting over 52% as a guard is rare to see.

Adika Peter-McNeilly has made the most 3 pointers out of anyone in a Stinger jersey with 52. Also notice that Moon makes 3’s at a clip of over 46% which is insane!

Daniels has drawn a lot of fouls with his physical play, and Moon is our best free throw shooter (he’s pissed that he isn’t over 90%) One startling stat here is how poor Kamba’s free throw shooting has been over 2 seasons. I’ll be keeping a close eye on that during his 3rd year.

The Stingers have the most wins over 2 seasons with 21. Edmonton is the class of the League and here’s why; they’re the first to 20 total wins, have never missed the playoffs, have never missed the semi-finals and of course have earned a title during that time too!

Jermaine Small has the most wins out of any CEBL Head Coach (in fewer games than Victor Raso) I look forward to watching him increase that lead.

Among the new players this season, I can really see Marlon Johnson and Brady Skeens to climb these ranks too. In the meantime, I’ll be watching last year’s highlights to feed my hoops appetite.

As always, Defend the Hive!