It's been an incredible run for the Cartwright Twins the last few seasons in the Border Baseball League, and player/manager Drew Haight believes the group is poised to do it again.
With playoffs in full swing, Haight says this is the time of year the team really looks forward to. "We love it," he says with a laugh. "Every year, you play the regular season, and those games are fun, but you're always working toward the playoffs. This time of year, we tend to try and bring out 'A' game every night and it's the time you want to be playing."
The Twins are looking for their third championship in the last four years, and looking back, Haight try's to pinpoint what has made the program so successful. "It has to be experience. Before our past few years that have been pretty successful, we felt we had a good, young team for a lot of years. We needed time to figure it out. We took some losses in the semifinals, and I think the first time we made the finals we won, but it took some time. Just realizing what we needed to do to win, if we fall behind in a game, how to get back into it. It took experience and having to get there."
That experience has played a role in the success again this year, but Haight also points to other factors. "This year, I'd say we've been pretty lucky. Over the past several years we've kept the same group of guys together, and we've got some additions over the years from different places, and this year, we were fortunate to get a couple new guys. With some guys getting older and other guys having families, not being able to be at every game, it's really helped. The past few years, we've sort of had a hungry nine every once and a while, but this year, we had more guys and could fill different spot. It helps get you through the regular season and gives you a chance to win every night."
With the win on Tuesday, the Twins are positioned to be moving on, and Haight says the team understands there might be some added pressure being perceived as the favourites, but they don't think about it. "I guess while we never really think of ourselves as the favourites, even though our success maybe that is the case, but we don't think of it that way. We just go out every night and we like to win, so we just go about it that way. We try and do our best every night and see how things go."
This year, Haight highlights a particular part of the teams game leading into the playoffs that he believes will help win ball games. "Our pitching has been steady all year, which hasn't always been the case. Our bats carry us normally carry us, but this year they've felt not quite the same level as normal. The last few games, we feel like it's come around. We've hit more home runs and it's felt more normal. That's the biggest part for us."
Focusing on the now, Haight says the group is also looking ahead to Western's in August, another chance to do some damage on a big stage. "Well, we probably should have been thinking about it more, but you can't really. We just try and get as deep into the playoffs so that we can keep playing. Hopefully, our league finalists go to provincials, so hopefully we can put ourselves into that spot. It's never easy to get into the league finals, obviously. So, just play as much as we can, as far into August as we can, and be ready for Western's."
Having been a part of the program for years, Haight believes the community support has been a big reason for bringing the best out of players. "We're very lucky, we get quite a few fans to all our games, especially come playoff time. We get support throughout the year, but we get a significant chunk of people out to our games, and it helps. We looked around our first game and we blown away by how many people were there. It makes a difference. Our community is very supportive of anything that goes on and you feel it. We appreciate it, that's for sure."
Cartwright is located in an interesting spot, so passion and dedication are important as there's lots of travel and Haight appreciates all that the guys put into the team. "If it wasn't as fun as it is and we didn't do it together, we probably wouldn't do it at all. I've done it for a lot of years and I'm going to keep doing it, for a while anyways. We'll see how long we can keep it together and keep it going."
The Twins and Clearwater go into game 3 on Thursday with Cartwright leading two games to none.