Dawgs sweep Millionaires

Western Canadian Baseball Leauge leading Okotoks Dawgs completed the sweep of the Melville Millionaires after picking up two-straight seven-inning decisions.

Lewis-Clarke lefty Justin Hammergren threw a complete-game in the first half of the seven-inning doubleheader against the Millionaires to earn the Dawgs their 30th win of the season with a 5-1 win Sunday afternoon.

Hammergren dealt during his sixth start of the year – allowing a lone run on six hits while striking out eight in his outing.

He gave the Mils no hope on offence, throwing six shutout innings while only seeing two men on third base and leaving a total of seven on base en route to his fourth win of the season.

UBC infielder Jaxon Valcke opened the scoring during the opening inning with his second home run of the season, launching a two-run moonshot just the third at-bat into the game.

Thompson Rivers second baseman Liam Rihela capped off the early run on offence with an RBI double.

Okotoks extended its lead to 4-0 in the fourth inning courtesy of a two-out RBI single from Oregon State commit Jacob Melton.

Melville got on the board in a hitless fifth inning as a sac-fly in foul territory allowed a runner to cross home-plate to break Hammergren’s shutout bid.

Nonetheless, the Dawgs put the game away with an insurance play from Dawgs Academy graduate of last year’s class Noah Penney, who padded the Okotoks lead with an RBI fielders-choice to push the score to 5-1.

The Dawgs blanked an opponent for the first time this season and picked up the sweep with their 8-0 rout of the Millionaires in the second game of the seven-inning doubleheader Sunday evening.

UBC pitcher Jared Spearing also went the distance but threw a complete-game shutout to lift the Dawgs to their 31st win of the season on route to his second win of the season.

Okotoks (31-10) picked up their sweep of the Mils (14-28) in a peculiar fashion as the Dawgs held a suffocating 4-0 lead through four innings without tallying a base knock until the fifth inning.

The Dawgs earned five walks in the second inning to open the scoring – walking a run home before scoring on a wild pitch.

After tripling the lead with a pass-ball the next inning, the Dawgs extended their lead to 4-0 courtesy of UBC’s Valcke who cashed a runner in on a fielder’s-choice in the fourth inning.