Canucks' Zeb Smith tracks down a pop-up.It's pretty hard to just flip the switch and be ready to go.  The Midget AA Canucks found that out on Tuesday night as they lost both games in a doubleheader, falling 13-3 to Lumsden and 15-3 to Assiniboia.

The Canucks haven't gotten on the field much so far this year as they've fallen victim to the wet weather and that caught up to them Tuesday night.

“Playing four games in the month of June caught up with us unfortunately,” said head coach Kevin Smith after the losses.  “I expected maybe some of these games in May, but we haven't played a lot.  We're into our eighth game and most teams are at 13 and 14.”

With starting pitcher Andrew Hill out sick, the Canucks had to go with a pitcher by committee approach to the two games.  Smith said they battled.

“These guys showed up today and didn't know that they were suppose to pitch that first game,” he explained.  “They threw their up to 40 pitches so that they could play in the second game, and I thought they pitched better.”

Kyle Wilson, Stephen Wilson and James Barkway split the time in the two games and were hit around by the Cubs and Aces.  They didn't get much help defensively or offensively either and that showed the inexperience that the team has due to the missed games so far.

“We were a little lack of swinging the bat and being aggressive, and you've got to think that the two teams that came in hit the ball hard and they were just free and easy swinging, and maybe that's what we should do,” said Smith.

The Canucks battled hard.  In the first game, Lumsden scored runs in only two innings, but they were big innings as they picked up seven in the second and six in the fourth.  Assiniboia scored early as well, going up 7-1 after the second inning thanks to five in the first and two in the second.  They blew the game open with six more in the sixth.

“We fought through it, they kept their heads held high for the most part and we didn't quit, even in the last inning we had some guys on base and were trying to get some runs there,” said Smith.
Aiden Coleman, Payton Denet and Barkway scored the three runs for the Canucks in the first game, while Coleman, Cody Robbins and Stephen Wilson came across to score in the second game.

The Canucks are sitting at 2-6 on the year.  They host the Muenster Red Sox on Saturday.