Baseball looking for upswing locally

As the weather slowly improves local baseball is getting underway as well.

As they prepare for a double header this week against the Rudyard Bulldogs, the Soo Black Sox 15U team has four games under its belt after a pair of double headers last week.

With limited practice time early on, the Black Sox team went 1-3 in their four-game stretch, picking up a 5-1 win over the Rudyard Bulldogs JV team in the opening game of the week before dropping three in a row.

It’s a new stretch for the Black Sox program as it looks to rebuild.

The 15U team is set to play games against both American and Canadian competition as it faces northern Michigan competition, including the Soo High junior varsity team in the Michigan Sault.

Among the Canadian competition the team will face are teams based in the Windsor area, giving the Black Sox program Canadian games ahead of the provincial championships in Guelph in late August.

In the win over Rudyard, Matthew Gagne reached base on a pair of walks while Lucas Malcolm went 1-for-3 with a walk and a pair of runs scored.

In the second game of the day, Malcolm went 2-for-4, as did Carter Gallivan in an 8-5 loss.

Malcolm McGugan had a pair of hits and knocked in a pair of runs.

The Black Sox dropped a pair of games the following day to the Soo High JV Blue Devils, losing the opener 11-6 and then dropping a 7-3 decision in game two.

McGugan had a pair of hits, a walk and knocked in a run in the opener, while also scoring a pair of runs. Gagne also had two hits in the game.

In game two, Avery Kalliomaa had a pair of hits for the Black Sox.