Fall ball playoffs in sight 

With one week left in their 10-game regular season, the U15 Fall Ball Warhawks are looking to keep their momentum going before the playoffs.

After starting the year 3-0, the team lost three straight against the St. Lazare Mustangs 2, the St. Laurent Crush 2, and the Presqu’ile Pirates.

“Our bats went cold and defense wasn’t playing the greatest, we ran into one or two good pitchers, which is gonna happen,” said head coach Jesse Lahache. “But, the game got away from us because of our own errors and not taking advantage when we needed.”

Assistant coach Dominic Séguin also thinks the team beat themselves as much as the other teams beat them, but he thinks that one more factor is at play: the kids are starting to get tired, and are just a lot busier now than they were at the beginning of the fall.

“They’re teenagers, they have other things to do than just play baseball every weekend, like homework, activities, other sports, it is starting to take a lot of time and energy,” said Séguin.

He said that while he cannot necessarily speak for everyone on the team, that is what he is seeing with his son, Noah.

But with the end of the season in sight, it seems as though the Warhawks players are giving it one last big push.

Prior to this past weekend’s games, Lahache held a practice to work on what went wrong during their three-game skid, and everyone put in maximum effort according to the Warhawks’ head coach.

“Everybody was there to work hard and work on what they needed to help the team win,” said Lahache.

“The losses hit them and motivated them, I think,” said Séguin. “We’re having a good season, we can’t win them all, but now we have to go back and keep going.”

The Warhawks found themselves down early on Saturday, September 28 against the Pierrefond Dodgers, and played from behind the whole game until the last inning, adding a few runs to the board each inning.

“Then we just kind of took over,” said Lahache. The Warhawks piled on the runs in the last inning to beat the Dodgers 17-10.

Lahache said that because the team never gave up while down the whole game, it gave them the chance to win.

A similar situation happened against the St. Laurent Crush 1 on Sunday, where the Warhawks were down early after playing against a great pitcher.

“Nobody could touch him. We went three up, three down,” said Lahache. He was particularly complimentary of his curveball, which he called very advanced for this level.

“The kids were ducking, they thought they were going to get beaned in the head, and all of a sudden it drops in the zone, it was beautiful,” said Lahache.

But once St. Laurent changed pitchers, the Warhawks went to work, ultimately winning 10-9.

“The kids came in clutch when we needed them,” said Lahache.

Now 5-3, they are hoping to finish the season with four straight wins.

Interestingly, Kahnawake will play against the St. Laurent Crush 1 again this Saturday at the Sports Complex, the only time they will play against the same team twice in a row.

“From a coaching point of view, my lineup is going to be different,” said Lahache. “Knowing their pitching staff now, how my pitching lineup is against their bats, and just how I’m going to approach the game now, it is going to be different.”

After their rematch against St. Laurent and their Sunday game against the Lakeshore Lynx, a four-game playoff will be played. The two opening playoff matchups are already known - they will serve as seeding and qualification games for the semifinals. The Warhawks will play against the Pirates on October 11 and the Monteregie-West Reds on October 12, both games being played in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield.

Séguin does not have any big expectations for the playoffs, because any team can get hot at the right time during a one-game playoff.

That being said, if the Warhawks take things one game at a time and play the right way, with the help and encouragement of Lahache and himself, he thinks they are a good team and that anything is possible.

“To take an expression from Yogi Berra, it ain’t over till it’s over,” said Séguin.

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