June 25, 2019

By Dan Khavkin

Okotoks Dawgs

Okotoks, AB – The Okotoks Dawgs defeated the Fort McMurray Giants 2-1 on Tuesday night at Seaman Stadium.

Okotoks swept the Giants during their two-game set earlier in the month and improved their record against them to 3-0 on the season.

WIth the win, the Dawgs (17-5) increased their lead in the WCBL Western Division to five games over the second-place Lethbridge Bulls.

Mesa Community College hurler Nolan Ruff started the game for the Dawgs but had a 50-pitch limit. He still managed to go six innings, allowing just one run while striking out eight to improve his record to 4-0 on the season.

“I knew I had a limit on my pitches,” Ruff said after the game. “I told Joe (Sergent) I felt good today and told him I can throw more if needed. I knew after that fifth inning I was probably getting yanked, but I was irritated after some calls went the other way and wasn’t ready to go out like that.”

Virginia Tech product Nick Vickers took over for Ruff and retired all six batters he faced - three of them on strikeouts - in the seventh and eighth innings before Mesa teammate Dustin Schorie shut the Giants down in the ninth to register a save.

Despite the Dawgs getting outhit for just the third time this season, runs in the first two innings helped them outlast the Giants (8-13).

With Dawgs players on second and third base in the first, University of Houston infielder Bret Esau hit a sacrifice fly to open the scoring.

In the next inning, Chandler-Gilbert outfielder Tristan Peters singled and registered his team-leading 22nd RBI of the season to double the Dawgs’ lead.

A sacrifice fly from the Giants cut the Dawgs’ lead in half during the fifth inning.

Ruff answered back and used a little anger to dominate in his sixth and final inning.

“In my head, I told the other team to ‘shove it’ and that motivated me to strike out all three of my final outs,” said Ruff. “I ramped it up a little bit for sure. I played pissed off and was not going to let them control my game so I went after them and took any chance away from scoring another run.”

The Dawgs now travel to Brooks for their final meeting of the season against the Bombers on Wednesday evening with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m.