The Okotoks Midget Dawgs Black gave mom something to celebrate.
Okotoks completed an undefeated weekend of action in the friendly confines of Seaman Stadium by outlasting the Langley Blaze 5-4 in an extra-inning final to take home the Perfect Game Mother’s Day Classic.
“It’s definitely one of our best rivals,” said Dawgs right fielder Justin King. “Every single time we play them it’s always really close and really up to the very end when we find out who wins.
“It’s very special, especially since it’s Mother’s Day. We’ve got to win for our mothers.”
Third baseman Brett Esau opened the scoring with a bases loaded single in the top of the first and the Dawgs would tack on three more in the fourth on RBI from Ashton Roy and Soren Graversen to jump out to a 4-1 advantage.
The Blaze would claw back with one in the fourth and two in the sixth inning to level the seesaw final at 4-4.
However, Okotoks’ aggressive approach would eventually wear down the visitors.
“It’s to always try and have good at-bats, if you walk, it’s a good at bat, force an error good at bat,” King said. “Just trying to get as many people on base to keep pressure on them all the time.”
The pressure would pay dividends in the top of the eighth inning. With pinch runner Greg Student on third base and two outs, stud centre fielder Clayton Keyes came through. The number two hitter’s sharp single went over the glove of the Langley third-baseman to drive in the winning run.
“I was just trying to put that ball in play and let them make a play and he ended up not making the play,” said Keyes, a highly touted prospect for the 2016 MLB Draft. “I think we’re the hardest working team and it was just us being the team we’ve been all year.”
New Zealand native Ben Thompson pitched a flawless eighth inning to pick up the win in relief of starter Nathan Tovell who tossed five solid innings from the bump.
The Perfect Game title marks the second time the Black Dawgs have got the better of the Blaze in a championship game after beating out the B.C. squad at the Best of the West tournament in April.
“We’ve had a rivalry with them for eight or nine years,” Keyes added. “It’s always nice playing them, especially when you get a win.”
Along with the two tournament triumphs, the Dawgs were second-place finishers at the Perfect Game Showcase in Atlanta in what’s been a prolific start to the campaign.
“A lot of these guys have been playing together for a while,” said Dawgs Black coach Val Helldobler. “They play hard. At times we can play down to our competition, but we certainly play up to our competition too and that matters in big games like this.”
Okotoks Black certainly rose to the occasion in the semifinal against their academy counterparts, the Dawgs Red.
The former would strike for an eight-run second inning on the strength of a grand slam from King on an 0-2 count en route to the 12-3 victory.
“Third pitch I had a feeling it would be a fastball, he threw two in a row,” said King, a Foothills Composite student. “He threw it inside and I definitely connected and I was lucky to get it out.”
Okotoks Black had previously picked up victories in round-robin play over the Calgary Rockies, Edmonton Cardinals and Coquitlam Reds.
Midget Red was undefeated against teams not from Okotoks over the weekend.
The Dawgs were perfect in round-robin in picking up a 3-0 record to advance to the playoff round. Okotoks Red walked off the Parkland Twins by an 8-7 count as Dane Fredland led the way on the sticks in a four-for-four performance.
Okotoks then clobbered the Saskatoon Giants to the tune of 12-4 as hard-hitting outfielder Jack Marlin drove in four and sparkplug leadoff hitter Tucker Zdunich hit one over the fence. Midget Red then wrapped up pool play in a 2-1 victory over the North Delta Blue Jays led by a strong performance on the mound from Foothills Composite student Ben Tighe.
The U16 Dawgs White team finished fourth in Pool B.
For more information on the Dawgs Academy go to jdawgsbaseball.ca
