The Okotoks Dawgs led the Western Major Baseball League with 11 all-star selections. Okotoks had eight players selected for the first team and three on the second squad. First-team all-stars included outfield: Collin Ridout, William Hollis; third base, Nate DeChaine; designated hitter, DeChaine; utility player, Eddie Sanchez; starting pitcher, Cody Ebert; relief pitcher, Dustin Schorie and closing pitcher, Craig Smith. Voted to the Second team at second base was Sanchez as well as both Brock Townsend and Mason Swegarden at starting pitcher. “When you’ve been around the game as along as I have it’s pretty easy,” said Ebert, the Edmond, Oklahoma native. “It’s just another day at the yard going to pitch.” For Smith and Ebert, teammates at Columbia College, it was a record setting summer in the Foothills. Ebert set a Dawgs franchise record under the current league format with 65 strikeouts and tied for the league lead with six wins. Smith went one better, establishing a new WMBL benchmark with 15 saves. He earned honourable mention for the league’s outstanding achievement award for his terrific work out of the ‘pen. Not bad for a couple rookies in the WMBL. “If you’re a pitcher with good stuff I think you can have a lot of success here,” added Ebert, a hard-throwing righthander. “There are good hitters everywhere. “I know how my body works, I know what I need, the rest I need, I can adjust well.” Also on the mound, six-game winner Swegarden proved to be a workhorse with his trademark quick work from the mound. The unusual style is an exercise in rhythm, one to keep him in an efficient routine and two to keep the batters off balance. “I always like to work fast, it’s a tempo thing,” said Swegarden, out of Mayville State University. “Our guys talk about why do you work fast? Well, if we put up a four spot, a three spot, they don’t want to come out and pitch. If we work quick, get back in the dugout and get us hitting that’s fine. “That’s something I’ve always done, work fast. Hitters don’t like it, they don’t like being at my tempo.” Sanchez made his final season in Dawgs colours a memorable one, breaking his own franchise record with 33 walks while posting an impressive .431 on-base percentage. Ridout proved to be a consistent force as a leadoff hitter and rangy centre-fielder. The Tennessee Wesleyan College product had a knack for getting on base with a .348 batting average and 70 hits. Fellow outfielder Hollis led the team with a .361 batting average and bashed 31 ribbies. DeChaine, so nice they made him an all-star twice at third base and designated hitter, was Okotoks’ best run-producer with 10 home runs and 47 RBI. The figure of 11 all stars is a new franchise record for the Dawgs, shattering its previous high of eight from the 2017 campaign. For more information go to dawgsbaseball.ca
