Indians Weyburn Armanino
Anthony Armanino

Always a contender for the top prize, the Swift Current Indians open their WMBL playoff run tonight at home against Weyburn.

The Indians finished in top spot in the Central Division with a 29-17 record, while the Beavers were third in the East Division at 18-28.

Swift Current won the season series 3-1, but Weyburn beat the Indians 4-3 in the last meeting between the two teams on Monday. It was a game that didn't mean anything in the standings and the Indians were resting some key personel.

Weyburn Coach Phil Curtis sees his team as a scrappy group that won't quit.

"The biggest thing about our team is how hard we work every night," Curits said. "I think that goes a long way in the playoffs as well."

The Indians have been very stingy as of late and scoring runs against their top pitchers will be a difficult task. That means the Beavers will have to be opportunistic and will have a small margin of error.

"We need to be patient and get the pitches that we can hit," Curtis added. "When we do get runners on we have to find a way to bring them in and move them over. We can't make any mistakes."

Weyburn is embracing the role as underdog.

"We don't have any pressure on us all the pressure is on their side," Curtis said. "We're just going to come out, compete as hard as we can and hopefully good things happen."

The Indians know that all the success they had in the regular season doesn't mean anything o nce playoff start. They learned that lesson last season when Lethbridge knocked them out in the first round of the playoffs in 5 games.

"We've got some guys that had some pretty special seasons for us," said Indians Coach Joe Carnahan. "The bottom line is once playoffs start than that's a whole new season, a whole new experience... it's time to see who the guys are who want to perform during the playoffs and to get after it."

Swift Current goes with a starting pitcher who has plenty of big game experience from his college days at Lewis Clark State Idaho.

"Anthony Armanino will be going game 1," Carnahan said. "He's been very good for us all season long. He has a lot of experience pitching in big games. He's been to the (College) World Series twice and has had success at the World Series twice."

"We'll look for him to set the tone for the playoffs in game 1."

First pitch is 7:05pm at Mitchell Field.

Game 2 is Thursday in Swift Current before the series shifts to Weyburn for Friday night and Saturday afternoon. We'll bring you the broadcast of Indians playoff road games starting on Friday night on The Eagle 94.1 FM.