With the end of April showers, the New Westminster Twins are eager to make some hay in May.
The Lower Mainland 18-plus baseball team is nearly a month into its schedule but has only two games under its belt, thanks to a deluge of rainouts and postponements.
General manager Ron Suffron said this year’s crew brings a lot of promise and 2018 is going to be a major improvement on last year’s rough 4-14 season – dead-last in the LMBL’s Bob Bunnett Division.
“We’ve only had two games but they were both close,” said Suffron. “We’ve added some good acquisitions and should be competitive.”
New West opened the season three weeks ago with a 5-2 loss to the Fraser Valley Chiefs. Ten days ago they were doubled 4-2 by the South Delta Padres.
Last week’s game with the Vancouver Capilanos was washed out.
Behind aces Sean McCallum and Brendan McCloskey, Suffron said the pitching is in good shape and says some of the newer additions address one of the main weaknesses that harpooned the Twins’ run last year – the hitting.
“We have picked up some good hitters, which has been our nemesis the past few years,” he noted. “We’re a lot deeper throughout the lineup, too.”
McCallum, a 29-year-old righthander, tops the rotation and sets the table as one of the leaders.
“He’s our ace,” said Suffron.
Anchoring the battery is 24-year-old catcher Leonardo Guevarra.
The players all have played at the college level, and many have come up through the B.C. Premier Baseball League.
The weather has whittled down the first three weeks of games to a sparse number, with a couple teams still looking to get their second game of the season under their belts, as of Wednesday.
In a weekend league, where games are scheduled for only Friday to Sunday times, rainouts are a steady pain in the first six weeks of the season.
New West’s next game is Saturday, 6 p.m. against the 0-3 Vancouver Blue Jays, at Queen’s Park Stadium.
