Two local ballplayers are joining the Moose Jaw Miller Express on the field again this summer with a hope their experience and leadership will help the high-ranking club win a Western Major Baseball League championship.
Craik’s Tanner Spencer and Davidson’s Terry McNabb are taking the mound as starting pitchers on the WMBL Central Division first place team this season. Both players are back playing with the mostly hometown Millers and expressing delight in it after recently returning from their respective college baseball teams.
“Me and Terry both played minor baseball in Moose Jaw and grew up watching some Miller Express games,” said Spencer, 20, a right-handed starting pitcher for the Kansas-based Colby Community College Trojans this past spring. “It’s a good league. I enjoy playing here. It’s some different markets. Sometimes we get a lot of fans out and sometimes there are a few fans, but it’s always good competition. It has been for a while.”
Spencer is enjoying his first full season with the Millers this summer after suiting up sporadically with the team during the 2011 and 2012 seasons. The Alberta Vauxhall Academy of Baseball graduate missed last season due to a torn UCL (ulnar collateral ligament) that required Tommy John surgery and the average one-year of rehabilitation that follows it.
“I don’t think anyone has ever said that rehab is fun, but it is what it is and it’s part of the game,” said Spencer, who has a 7.71 ERA this year in 11.2 innings pitched with the Millers. “It’s just the mental hurdles now at this point that you’ve got to get over and just trust in all your pitches and trust in your arm.”
McNabb is back for his fifth summer with the Millers and is enjoying the same WMBL success he achieved in his last season with the club in 2012. Like two years ago, the hard throwing right-hander is once again leading the team in innings pitched (34), strikeouts (36) and wins (five) through their first 15 games of the Millers’ 46-game May 30 to July 30 regular season.
“It’s more so just being aggressive in the zone and trusting the people to play good defence behind you and get on offence to pick you up if you make a mistake,” said McNabb, 22. “If you give up a run they’re going to make it back pretty quick. Knowing you got that; there is a lot less pressure on you. I feel you don’t have to press too much because everybody else around you is going to try to pick you up.”
To read more please see the June 30 print edition of The Davidson Leader.