Baycat's Angus Roy is not taking anything for granted

The Barrie Baycats finished off their 2016 regular season with two straight wins, the latter a 9-6 triumph over the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Sunday.

The club finished third in the Intercounty Baseball League standings with a 25-11 record.

Effective Thursday night, it all means diddly squat.

For that’s when the IBL champions start defence of their title at Coates Stadium against the sixth-seeded Burlington Bandits, whose record was a mere 10-26.

Still, Baycats’ Manager Angus Roy is taking nothing for granted.  “We expect a very hard-fought series," he said. "We are playing a team with absolutely nothing to lose. Nobody expects them to beat us so that usually means that a team plays very relaxed.”

The team finished behind the second-place Kitchener Panthers, who the Baycats outdistanced last summer to take the IBL title, and the first-place London Majors. Just the same, Roy is concentrating on what made his club successful against Burlington in May, June and July — and not looking down the road at potential future opponents.

“Our formula has been the same since day one," says Roy. “Pitch well, play good defence, and capitalize on scoring opportunities. We need to continue to do those things to be successful. And we focus on what we do, not what other teams do. We feel that if we play well we are very difficult to beat.”

Roy takes this opportunity to spotlight consistent contact hitters such as Ryan Spataro and Kyle DeGrace, who insists need to get on base regularly for the team to click. He’s also looking for the men in the middle of the batting order — guys like Kevin Atkinson, Jordan Castaldo and Steve Lewis — to bring them around to score.

“It's a cliche, but you usually win when your best players are your best players.”

And being a pitcher himself, Roy will never minimize the importance of the men on the mound.  “We need quality starts from (Emilis) Guerrero, (Matthew) St. Kitts, and (Adam) Rowe.”

What else Roy would like his players to do is keeping attention focused forward, reinforcing that nothing that happens during the regular season has any bearing on the post-season?

“One of our strengths is our resilience. The ability to move onto the next pitch, play, at bat, or game without looking back. We just keep coming.”

It all happens Thursday night at 7:30 at Coates Stadium.

For more information and tickets, visit the Baycats’ website.