The Saskatoon Berries beat the Regina Red Sox 8-4 on Monday night to keep their Western Canadian Baseball League postseason alive.
The game marked the second time in less than a week that the Berries won on the road while facing elimination, now returning home Tuesday night for a winner-take-all Game 3 from NextGen Patch @ Cairns Field.
The game at Currie Field started with the Berries and Red Sox tied 1-1 after one, before Regina scored in the second to make it 2-1. After two scoreless innings a three run top of the fifth for Saskatoon put the Berries up 4-2, but Regina answered in the bottom half to make it 4-3.
In the sixth inning the two sides traded runs again to make it 5-4, but then the Berries broke the game open in the 7th as they plated another three runs to increase their lead to 8-4.
From there the four run cushion was protected by relief pitcher Klevert Martina who picked up the win in relief, and Clay Mixon and Colin Plain taking the mound to collect the final eleven outs.
Monday's loss was the first of the postseason for the Red Sox, who swept the Medicine Hat Mavericks in the first round as the lower seed.
The winner of tonight's game will move on to face the Sylvan Lake Gulls in the final, coming off sweeping a good Okotoks Dawgs team with back-to-back wins of 7-3 and 8-4. If the Berries can get the job done they will have home-field advantage for the finals, while a victory for the Red Sox would send them into the finals as the road team.
Saskatoon versus Regina — a historic rivalry moving to baseball. Game 3 goes at 7:00 PM in Saskatoon.