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Being the road team didn’t slow down the Saskatoon Berries much on Tuesday night, as they drew first blood in their Western Canadian Baseball League East final series over the Moose Jaw Miller Express.
Outfielder Ethan Murdoch came through with two RBIs, including a home run, as the Berries took Game 1 of their second-round series against the Miller Express 7-4 and now stand just one win away from the league’s championship final.
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Saskatoon came out swinging with an early 7-0 lead on the road at Ross Wells Park, which stood up as enough of a cushion despite a late comeback attempt by the Miller Express.
The bats started early for the Berries, as Murdoch took Moose Jaw starter Sean Bavis over the fence in left centre field with the sixth pitch of the game for the solo home run and a 1-0 lead.
Two batters later, Saskatoon infielder Mason Roell did the same with a deep shot to the middle of the park for the Berries’ second home run of the inning to make it 2-0.
Oh that one is JUICED! 🧃 Berries open the scoring with 2 home runs in the first inning!
— Saskatoon Berries (@StoonBerries) August 12, 2026
SASK | 3
MJ | 0
Bottom of 2 pic.twitter.com/TQE9HUbyNG
In the second inning after Josh Henson got on base on a Moose Jaw fielding error, Nick Stinson moved his teammate to third with a double which was followed by a Nathan Houston ground out to score Henson and increase the Berries lead to a 3-0 count.
Saskatoon made it a 6-0 game in the top of the fourth inning, with a Nash Nichols single with the bases loaded to cash in a pair of runs before Brock Laird brought Houston in to score from third base.
Murdoch then picked up his second RBI of the night on a ground out to cash in Nichols, staking Saskatoon’s lead to 7-0.
Moose Jaw finally got to Berries starting pitcher Diego Quinonez in the sixth inning, as Thomas Soto scored on an error by Saskatoon catcher Aiden Kilshaw and a two-run home run shortly after by Miller Express catcher Garryn Plumber.
That ended Quinonez’s night on the mound, as he left the game with two earned runs given up on three hits with two strikeouts over 5.2 innings of work.
The Miller Express closed the gap to three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning with an RBI single from Eduardo Saenz, but the Berries shut down the Moose Jaw offence the rest of the way to earn the Game 1 victory.
It’s an identical scenario to the 2024 east final, which saw the Berries take a 1-0 series lead after a dominant 14-1 victory in the Game 1 opener, only to see Moose Jaw rally to win the next two games.
The Berries can advance to their first ever WCBL championship series with a win on Wednesday night at Cairns Field, with a 7 p.m. opening pitch set for Game 2.
In the West Division final, meanwhile, the Sylvan Lake Gulls earned a 7-2 victory on the road as well against the Okotoks Dawgs and can advance to their second straight league final with a Game 2 win on Wednesday in Sylvan Lake.
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