Dawgs brush back Bombers

The Okotoks Dawgs shook off two-straight Western Major Baseball League road losses by defeating the Brooks Bombers 10-7 Wednesday night at Seaman Stadium.

The Dawgs (3-2) extend their wing streak to 14-straight wins over the Bombers (2-3).

After dealing with a jam in the first inning, Dawgs starter Brock Townsend (Linn-Benton Community College) settled in nicely in front of the 1,430 fans in attendance. He went five innings, allowed three earned runs and struck out 10 batters. His 10 strikeouts tied him with Cody Ebert (Columbia College) for the most in a start this season, as he picked up his first win.

“He was awesome — lights out. As soon as he started spotting up, he was lights out,” said Marcus Skundrich (Mesa Community College). “Anytime you get 10 strikeouts from your starter, that’s a pretty good night.”

The one mistake Townsend made came in the top of the third when Riley MacDonald crushed the first pitch he saw over the left-centre field fence. He later added an RBI double in the ninth for the Bombers.

“If you watch, he walked off back of mound, took three deep breaths, blew out all the negative energy and got after it. He’s a competitor out there that gets after it,”said Dawgs Head Coach Mitch Schmit.

The Bombers lead was short lived, as Eddie Sanchez (Central Arkansas) led off the third with a five-pitch walk, advanced to second on a past ball and later scored on a two-strike single by Will Hollis (Cisico Community College). After Hollis stole second, Nate DeChaine (Morningside College) singled to right field to score Hollis and tie the game.

Skundrich was clutch for the Dawgs in the early innings. In the second, his two out walk extended the inning, which allowed Richard Mascarenas (Linn-Benton Community College) to drive home Riley Baasch (Bellevue University) with a single up the middle.

“We practised quite a bit in the cages before the game and worked on laying off tough pitches. We wanted to have better at bats with guys in scoring position and we wanted to chase the starter as soon as we could and it paid off today,” said Skundrich.

The following inning, Skundrich chopped one the third basemen Liam Shibata. A high throw allowed Skundrich to reach base safely. Running hard from second and never breaking stride was DeChaine, who slid home safely, as the Dawgs regained the lead.

Tacking on runs in the sixth, Brandon Sparks (Bellevue University) split the gap in right field to score Mascarenas. DeChaine chopped one out to shallow right, but the second basemen Jakob Shields couldn’t make the diving stop, which allowed Ryan Humeniuk (Indian Hills Community College) and Hollis to score.

Bombers starter Tyler Whalen went five innings, allowed four earned runs, walked and struck out three batters in his third appearance of the season. He got stuck with his first loss of the season.

After leading off the eighth with a pair of singles, Bryce O’Farrell sent a hot shot to DeChaine at third. The ball took a bad hop to get past him, which allowed Damian Rodriguez to score.

For good measure, the Dawgs blasted four consecutive hits from Sparks, Sanchez, Humeniuk and Baasch to score another three runs.

In the ninth, Rodriguez belted a double off the right field wall to score Shields. The Bombers tacked on two more runs in the ninth to back Craig Smith (Columbia College) into his second save of the season.

The Dawgs will be off tomorrow and will battle the Lethbridge Bulls (1-5) for the first time this season Friday, June 8, at Spitz Stadium. The Dawgs next home game is slated Sunday, June 10, when the Edmonton Prospects (2-2) roll into Seaman Stadium for the first afternoon home game of the season. First pitch is set for 2:05 p.m.