Despite sitting in a 16-game losing streak, the Weyburn Senior Beavers have not given up on their dreams of making the playoffs yet.

"It would be so easy for these men to pack in the tent, but they haven't." Assistant coach Noah Trujillo said that the team has been "continuing to play hard baseball and we still have a real chance to make the playoffs."

This is an achievable possibility, since the Beavers currently only sit a couple of games behind Regina in the East Division. "We definitely know what we need to accomplish in our upcoming games and each player needs to do their job," said catcher Cody Pride.

The Beavers have 11 scheduled games left in their season, four of them are against Regina. "If we take them we would get into third place," said Pride. "That would give us a spot in the playoffs, and we could go deep in the playoffs."

Finishing off their away games in Alberta, the Beavers played their first game against Lethbridge on July 3. It was a close game of 7-3 against the Bulls, a team that currently leads overall in the divisions.

Brennan Luffman starred on the mound for the whole game, pitching for eight innings with nine hits and seven runs scored against him. The Beavers started with an early lead against Lethbridge, with Gerad Fox and Destry Rice scoring two runs after Mike Pettibone doubled out to second base. However the Bulls claimed back the game in the third inning after a homer gave them a 5-2 lead.

A Beavers run scored by Riley Gavello unearned in the fourth game narrowed the score to 5-3 and it was a tight game until the fifth when Lethbridge scored two more runs. The Beavers were able to get two men on base in both the seventh and the ninth, but were unable to bring in any more runs. The result was that the win went to Lethbridge, with 7-3 after nine innings.

Facing Lethbridge again on July 4, it was a loss of 5-0 with the Beavers unable to score any runs against the Bulls. Jerry A'Hearn started the game, pitching for three innings with the five runs being earned off him. Matt Bauman then recovered on the mound, pitching four innings with no runs scored, and George Sakai finished up the game maintaining that strong defense.

"We played very well against Lethbridge, and it did affect us the way we played after those games," said Trujillo. "We played well enough to win, however it just was not there for us."

Coming home on July 6 to face St. Albert at Tom Laing Park, the Beavers almost had a win as after nine innings there was a 2-2 tie. Krag Jones pitched a defensive game, giving up two runs in the first innings and then giving up two more in the top of the ninth inning. Sakai, A'Hearn and Bauman finished up the remainder of the ninth, with St. Albert taking four more runs to take the game 8-2 against the Beavers.

They fought even harder against the St. Albert team the next night, on July 7, forcing the game into extra innings. Mike Pettibone started on the mound, pitching three innings, with Brennan Luffman, Sakai, Bauman and A'Hearn all taking a turn on the mound afterwards.

St. Albert started off with a 5-2 lead early in the game, however Weyburn tied it up in the eighth with three more runs. Hoping to take it home, St. Albert scored two runs in the ninth and the Beavers matched that to tie the game 7-7 in the ninth.

St. Albert scored a run in the tenth, and despite the Beavers having bases loaded the team was unable to take away the 8-7 win from St. Albert.

Gavello was one of the hard hitters that game, earning four hits for six times at bat. "We could have come out with a win, it was a really close game," he said.

The third time against St. Albert was not the charm for the Beavers, however, as they fell 9-1.

Justin Beahm pitched for two innings, with six runs earned off him, one of which was a grand slam run. Luffman pitched one inning and Sakai finished up the game on the mound. St. Albert had an early lead of 6-1 in the third inning. The lone run scored by the Beavers was a solo home run by Gerad Fox.

Last night the Beavers played Melville; the game results were unavailable due to publishing deadlines. On Thursday, July 12, they face Regina at Tom Laing Park at 7 p.m. The Beavers also play Saskatoon at Tom Laing Park on Saturday, July 14, before heading to Yorkton on Sunday, July 15 for an away game.

"We are starting to play better as a team, and I expect us to win against Regina." Gavello said, "I do not think that they will play as hard against us and be taken by surprise."