The Okotoks Dawgs longest road trip to date couldn’t have come at a better time.
Okotoks (20-10) polished off its second three-game sweep over the Fort McMurray Giants of the season to snap its four losses in five games skid in the Western Major Baseball League.
“What it took for us was a nice long trip away from here,” said Dawgs outfielder Collin Ridout. “We had dropped five at home in a row and going on the road, as far as Fort Mac is, you can kind of get away from all of this and just play baseball.
“I think it helped us a lot.”
They got off on the right foot in the Mac, staging an epic comeback to edge the Giants 6-5 in 11 innings on July 4.
Facing a 5-1 deficit in the ninth, Nate DeChaine drove in a pair and JT Patterson evened the score with a two-run home run. The latter, a Dawgs Academy product, completed the job with an RBI knock in the 11th.
“Execution, big time. The games we’ve lost we’ve left so many guys on base,” said Dawgs shortstop Richard Mascarenas. “One game we had 15 runners left on base.
“We were all playing tense and just wanted to get up there and have fun.”
Okotoks didn’t leave it so late in game two of the set, as Cody Ebert pitched seven solid innings to improve to 4-1 on the season as the visitors took it by a 5-2 count.
The Dawgs then completed the season-series sweep over the Giants in a 7-2 romp.
Brock Townsend was dominant on the bump in tossing six innings ofshutout baseball to improve to 3-0 with the club.
At the plate, Will Hollis continued to swing a hot stick with two ribbies while Ridout, Jacob Bouzide, Abdiel Alicea and Danny Donnelly all drove in a run.
“We’re very talented, I feel we’re more talented than they are,” said Ridout, the Tennessee Wesleyan University product. “Talent doesn’t win every day, but our guys do a good job of coming out and playing and giving everything they’ve got.”
The road home seemed to cure what ailed them.
Okotoks snapped its five-game losing streak at Seaman Stadium with an offensive outburst.
The Dawgs put up a staggering 20 hits and overpowered the Edmonton Prospects 11-7 on July 8.
Eddie Sanchez opened the floodgates with a bases clearing double in the second inning, while Ridout went 4-for-6 scoring two runs and all nine starters registered at least one hit in the effort.
“We had a lot of two-out hits, those are key,” Mascarenas said. “This was really important for us. We wanted to win for everyone, it’s the best when you win at home. It’s so much fun here.”
The Dawgs made it five in a row with a dramatic 6-5 win over the Mavericks Monday in Medicine Hat.
Okotoks is back home for three more this weekend.
First the Lethbridge Bulls charge into Seaman Stadium on July 13 then the Yorkton Cardinals make their first trip of the season for a two-game set on July 14-15.
For full schedule information go to dawgsbaseball.ca
