Jets finish off fall season with a pair of wins

Posted on October 15, 2026 by Vauxhall Advance

By Cole Parkinson
Vauxhall Advance

It was the last weekend with games until next spring for the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball. On Friday, the team was on the road to Oyen as they played their last doubleheader against the Badlands Baseball Academy.

In the penultimate game, the Jets saw 14 hits and were able to carve out a 12-5 win. Nic Danilak had a big day at the plate with a double, two singles, and a pair of RBI while Hudson Nikkel and Gavin Thomson each contributed with a double and a single each. Riley Pineau notched a pair of hits, and Will Henzi, Gerrit Vanderwal, Caleb Poulin, and Nathan Kim all had a hit in the win. Josh Daloise was the starter in game one and pitched two shutout innings where he struck out three and didn’t allow a single base runner. Charlie McMillan pitched two innings in relief with four strikeouts, and he allowed one walk and two hits. Parker MacKenzie was the next man up and pitched one inning where two earned runs scored on four hits. Gavin Benard finished the game with two innings pitched and three strikeouts. Three unearned runs scored on four hits and two walks.

To wrap up the fall, the Jets went back to work against Badlands. They continued to hit the ball all over the ballpark, and they were able to secure a 13-3 victory. The Jets tallied 13 hits in the win as Danilak, Henzi, Vanderwal, Nikkel, and MacKenzie all had two hits. Zielinski, Poulin, Thomson, and Leo Masse all had a hit in the victory. Cason Burton was on the hill to start, and the starter went two innings with a pair of strikeouts. Three unearned runs would score on two hits and no walks. Ben McMahon was called from the bullpen, and he gave the Jets two shutout innings with three strikeouts and one walk allowed. Jacob Flach pitched an inning and one-third with a strikeout, two hits allowed, and a walk. Ben Connolly finished the game pitching the final inning and one-third, and the reliever collected one punchout.

“We played pretty good baseball. We were shorthanded a bit; we had three pitchers unavailable, a couple were in Florida, and then we had a couple position players that were unavailable, so being down five guys, that kind of set the tone, but I thought our guys played really well,” stated Les McTavish, head coach of the Jets. “We pitched well, we pitched very well for the most part, we had one or two tough innings, but we pitched well, we had some timely hits, it’s probably as complete a game as we’ve played in a while, so I was really happy with the guys how they finished off the fall.”

Now the transition to winter really begins for the Jets. After their 100-inning game this week, they start to get the field ready for winter before moving indoors.

“We have our marathon game this week, and then we take a week off where we do all our own field maintenance out at Jets Stadium, so we’ll edge, and we’ll replace clay and add shale to spots, and just kind of get the field ready for the winter. Put all the nets and screens away and fix them, those types of things and then we have our Fall World Series, which is kind of a fun thing. It’s Wiffle Ball and a timed mile and different things like that,” explained McTavish. “On Oct. 26, we do some testing in the weight room, and then the following week we’re off to the races in the off-season, so the off-season’s about the individual, how to get them bigger, stronger, faster, more mobile, work on their swings and their mechanics and their mental performance, and then after Christmas it’ll be more on the pitching side, pitch design, spin rates, all those types of things.”

The new facility will be ready for the academy come November, while the community will see the doors open for them early in the new year.

“We’re probably (open) sometime right at the end of the month; it should be pretty close, and then it’s a matter of all the little things. My anticipation is for full public use; we’re probably pushing sometime in the early New Year, but as far as the baseball and just kind of a soft opening, just to make sure everything’s operating properly, probably early November,” added McTavish. “We don’t need any indoor stuff until that’s ready. We’re in a pretty good spot with it. The turf arrives this week; they’re just getting set up for it outside actually right now, and we’re still trying to fundraise. So that’s kind of our focus right now: trying to get those last pieces of funding completed, and some of those funding things are for the community weight room, things like that. Those things we’re trying to fundraise for, that isn’t necessarily for the baseball program, but for the community. That’s a big part of what we’re doing right now, and we look forward to hopefully finishing off soon.”

When they do eventually head inside, the players will shift their focus from games to getting stronger each day. While it is a bit of a reset, players and coaches are eager to get indoors and get to work.

“I think it’s a shift in mindset, but I think it’s a good shift in mindset. I think a lot of our players are looking forward to, you know, getting the results taken out of it, and just worrying about how to get better. That’s the cool part about the winter: there’s no result. If you have a bad day of indoor batting practice, it doesn’t really matter — sometimes you gotta take two steps backwards to take three or four steps forward. I think our guys are really looking forward to that, to be honest with you,” added McTavish.