Dicochea shines on historic night in Ottawa pro baseball history
Jason Dicochea hit the first regular season home run in Ottawa Titans’ franchise history in the second innong on Friday. Photo: Ottawa Titans
May 14, 2022
Official Ottawa Titans News Release
Joliet, IL - After 598 days, the Ottawa Titans took to the field for their inaugural game on Friday, taking home their first victory, downing the Joliet Slammers 10-6.
On a night of many firsts in franchise history, Clay Fisher delivered the first base hit with a one-out single into centre off Slammers starter Alec Thomas.
Following a scoreless top half of the first, Titans starter Zac Westcott ran into a bit of trouble, surrendering a pair of runs on back-to-back base hits from Carson Maxwell and Luke Mangieri.
The first home run and RBI in franchise history came off the bat of Jason Dicochea, who led off the top half of the second, hammering a first-pitch fastball over the left-centre field wall to cut the deficit to one.
That wasn’t all the scoring in the second, as the Titans grinded out at-bats against Thomas and scored the tying run off a Jacob Talamante sac fly.
The Titans took the lead in the top half of the third as Clay Fisher put himself 90 feet away after a lead-off single and took third on an airmailed throw following a stolen base. Rodrigo Orozco brought Fisher home on a sac fly.
Luke Mangieri tied the game with a lead-off home run in the bottom of the fourth off Westcott, cashing in a run on his second consecutive plate appearance.
The Titans busted it open in the fifth and sixth, scoring a combined seven runs off Slammers’ pitching, headlined by back-to-back RBI doubles from Jason Dicochea and Brendon Dadson.
Dicochea finished the night 3-for-5 with a single, double, home run, and two RBIs. The Redondo Beach, Calif., native was one of four players in the Frontier League to be one hit away from the cycle.
Westcott went five complete innings, allowing five runs on nine hits, punching out four, picking up the win.
Gavin Sonnier and Grant Larson combined for four innings out of the bullpen, surrendering a run on just one hit.
The Ottawa Titans open the home portion of the 2022 season on Tuesday, May 24 versus the Evansville Otters at Ottawa Stadium. First pitch for the inaugural home opener is at 6:30 p.m.