PLATTSBURGH — The Clinton County Senior Mariners baseball team is looking forward to the weekend with its full team.
The Mariners host the Annual Mehan/Turner Memorial Wooden Bat Tournament today and Sunday.
There will be three fields in use — Lefty Wilson, South Acres and Peru High School — with games being held throughout the two days totaling 21 contests in all.
“The kids are excited about finally being home,” said Mariners head coach John Flynn. “This is really when the season starts for us, and we’re finally going to have our entire team available after tests and the state high school playoffs.
“We’re looking forward to it, and it should be great competition. This will give us a chance to see where we are.”
The Mariners will play two games at Lefty Wilson Field today — at noon against Estacades de Trois-Rivieres and at 6 p.m. versus the Ottawa Knights.
“Our pitching still needs to be a little better — we’re walking too many batters,” said Flynn. “Kasey Favreau will pitch the first game for us, and we’ve moved Will (Flynn) out of the bullpen and he will pitch the second game.
“We’re looking to win two games (today), but we have to take it one game at a time. We can’t afford to fall behind in games all the time like we have been doing, and we need our pitchers to throw strikes.”
Flynn is confident with what he sees from his offense.
“We’ve been swinging the bats well,” said Flynn. “We know how good we can be — we just have to go out there and prove it.”
There are 10 teams competing.
“We’ve added two more teams this year,” said Flynn.
The Mehan Division will be comprised of the Mariners, Trois-Rivieres, Ottawa, Franklin County Post (Vt.) and Parkhurst Post.
In the Turner Division are Essex Junction Post, Hudson Valley Renegades, Malone Post #219, Montreal Titans U19 and Tri-County Eagles.
Sunday at Wilson Field, the Mariners oppose Parkhurst Post at 11 a.m. and Franklin County Post at 4 p.m.
All the teams will play four games each, with the top team in each division vying for the championship on Sunday at 7 p.m. at Wilson Field.
“The weather is expected to be good,” said Flynn. “We got our first-game jitters out of the way when we played at home against the Titans a couple of weekends ago. We should be ready to go.”
The Mariners will hold their first Hall of Fame induction ceremony at 5 p.m. today, with Harry Demary, Gary Butler and Bob Garrow comprising the inaugural class.
