Series Preview: Miller Express vs. Weyburn Beavers

Nick Murray

WMBL playoff action is underway. Your hometown Moose Jaw Miller Express will meet the Eastern Conference champions, the Weyburn Beavers, in the opening round of the postseason.

Moose Jaw's season record was below .500, despite starting the season with 6 straight victories. The team ended the regular season with 23 Wins and 25 Losses. Weyburn, on the other hand was excellent, finishing the season 37-11.

Weyburn also dominated Moose Jaw all season long,  winning 7 of their 8 matchups.

Moose Jaw will be relying on solid pitching from their likely starters Mitchell Robinson, Ryder Yakel and Logan Hoffman but Weyburn's 1-2-3 punch of Dalton Ross, Conor DiNaro and Ken Williams has been cutting down bats all season. Ross' 1.06 ERA is a frightening statistic for any batter. And even if they can get through the starters, the Miller Express will undoubtedly run into the Beavers' excellent bullpen, led by the closer with 10 saves, Eric Evans.

The Millers, although severely inconsistent, have shown they have the type of high-flying offensive that can give pitchers fits. Look for sluggers like Ty Roseberry, Scott Platt, Brooks Benson and Alex Hendra-Brown to take some big swings, especially if they've got the speedy Eric Marriott and Blake Gallagher on the base path.

But Weyburn didn't win the conference on pitching alone. They had some pretty remarkable offense as well. Corey Harrell broke the team's single season Home Run record with 12. That in addition to his whopping 42 RBIs and Corey Wheaton was outstanding all season long. Finishing the campaign with a .372 batting average and 30 stolen bases.

Prediction: this series is Weyburn's to lose. But Moose Jaw has too much skill to just role over and expect defeat. Moose Jaw will make this a lot harder on Weyburn than people expect, maybe even winning a couple of games. But in the end, the Beavers will succeed.

The schedule is as follows:

July 31 in Weyburn (Weyburn won 10-3)
Aug 1 in Weyburn
Aug 2 in Moose Jaw
Aug 3 in Moose Jaw
Aug 4 in Weyburn