The pitching was top-notch and the bats were hot in the senior boys Cochrane Crush opening game on Saturday.

The Crush opened their season on the road with an 18-0 win over the Centennial Mariners and coach Paul Vaillancourt says the team was firing on all eight.

"We won 18-0 on the strength of great pitching by Jack Smilski, Xavier Vaillancourt and Éric Wozniewicz," says Vaillancourt.  "On offense, the bats were humming with Wyatt Anderson leading the charge with a four-hit game."

The fact that the Crush entered the season with little field time, due to poor weather, didn't seem to hinder them. They did grab some practice time in the gym and have a core of players with experience beyond their years.

"We're in pretty good shape at the senior level because the guys are pretty good overall multi-sport athletes so they're in pretty good shape," explains Vaillancourt, who is also vice-president of minor ball, "It's just getting their minds shifted to baseball a little bit, but so far it's been pretty good."

He's optimistic about their chances to win the banner for Little League District 3 that inclues teams from Chestermere, Airdrie, northwest Calgary and Cochrane.

"We've got a good group.  I've coached more or less the same guys for the last four or five years. We've won two pennants in the last four years and we're looking forward to making it three for five."

The team puts a lot of emphasis on pitching because of the number of games played in a relatively short period of time. 

"Because we have so many games and there's a strict criteria to manage young  arms, it's really important for teams to have as many pitchers as possible. We try to get everyone to pitch or at least practice pitching and some guys opt out but I would say throughout the season everyone will end up pitching at least one inning."

Still, there will be six mainstays on the rubber.

"On the Crush team we have six of what I would call 'live arms' . They've been pitching for years and this year I'm allowing them to throw breaking balls. So, guys are probably going have three pitches: a fastball, a change up and a breaking ball. Up until this age group I haven't allowed the guys throw too many breaking balls to protect their arms."

The regular season continues until mid-June before playoffs. Some players may also opt to play all-star ball after the league's regular season ends. 

The team has their home opener tonight (May 2) against the Chestermere  Crushers at the South Rodeo Diamond. Thursday night they're at home against the Bow Ridge Rays.