Brewers Look To Build From Early Season Struggles

It wasn’t the start the Maple City Brewers were hoping for following a one year hiatus from competitive baseball, but the team is hoping to build on the lessons they’ve learned from their early season struggles.

“We started out this year thinking we were going to be fielding a team very similar to the one from 2011 when we won an OBA title, with only a couple guys missing,” said manager and player Dave Smith about his, and his brother Joel’s expectations entering the season.

The Brewers opened the season with an 0-5 record, and a rain out date, but are hoping to rebound as the bulk of the Western Counties Baseball Association schedule approaches.

“It’s pretty early in the season, and I’m happy with the progress we’ve made as a team coming back from a year off,” said Smith.

“We’re still shaking off some rust, but we have showed improvement with each game we play, which is a good sign that we’re moving in the right direction. We seem to have one bad inning each game, but other than those, we have been competitive in every game. You can’t ask for much more than that as a manager.”

Smith pointed to catcher and clean up hitter Rob Wojkowski, Joel Smith, Joe Wright, Matt Rylett, and Chatham Minor Baseball product Jeremy Eagen as early standouts for the Maple City Brewers.

“It will be a year of transition for sure,” continued Smith, who said much of the Brewers roster hasn’t played much baseball in recent years, and will continue to grow and improve over the season.

The Brewers play in Courtright Friday June 14, followed by Dresden June 23, before hosting the Port Lambton Pirates at Fergie Jenkins Field June 28 at 7:30pm.