Dawgs Black battle back to edge the Bulls

By Dale Woodard on August 12, 2021.

The Lethbridge Bulls and the Okotoks Dawgs Black were spinning the hits Wednesday night.

But at the end of a four-hour marathon the Dawgs Black were humming a toe-tapping result following a 12-11 win in Western Canadian Baseball League play Wednesday night at Spitz Stadium.

Trailing 11-8 after six innings, the league-leading Dawgs Black (23-14) clawed their way back with a three-run seventh inning before Nicolas Fortin picked a fine time to slug his first home run of the season with a solo shot in the top of the eighth. That stood up as the game-winner as the teams exchanged 35 hits on the night, 18 of those going to Okotoks.

The loss puts the Bulls at 19-17 and into a tie for second place in the WCBL with the Sylvan Lake Gulls, who fittingly the Bulls host tonight at Friday at 7:05 p.m. at Spitz Stadium before heading to Sylvan Lake for two more games Saturday and Sunday to wrap up the regular season.

The win puts the Dawgs Black 3.5 games up on Lethbridge and Sylvan Lake for first place.

“They had a couple of shutdown innings and we weren’t able to get that. We hit some balls hard at them that got caught,” said Bulls head coach Chance Wheatley.

The runs came early for both sides Wednesday night.

The Dawgs Black put a run on the board in the top of the first, but a four-run inning in their half of the first paced Lethbridge to a 4-1 lead.

Ty Penner doubled and scored on a Brad Goodwin single to centre field

Torrin Vaselenak – the Coaldale product playing his last game of the season as he heads to the U.S. Friday for his third year at the University Arkansas at Monticello – singled in Carlin Dick and then scored along with Goodwin on a Nick Gravel single.

The Bulls went up 5-1 in the second when Mike Fitzsimmons doubled and scored on a fielder’s choice of the bat of Penner.

The Dawgs Black plated four runs in the third inning to briefly tie it, but another Bulls four-run inning paced the home side to a 9-5 lead.

Goodwin scored on an error to right field. Vaselenak doubled and crossed on a single from Josh Kabayama. Kabayama and Jack Ray then scored on a double from Noah Or.

Okotoks cut the Bulls lead to 9-8 after the fifth inning, but Lethbridge padded their lead one more time with a pair in the sixth. Penner scored on a double from Dick, who then scored on Vaselenak’s third RBI of the night.

But the Dawgs Black had one more comeback in the slug-fest with a trio to tie it in the seventh before Fortin went yard over the centre field wall in the eighth to put Okotoks ahead for good.

“When every hitter is going full count it drags on and guys kind of zone in and out,” said Wheatley of the four-hour game with hits surpassing the 30 mark. “It is what it is and they did a better job of fighting through that.”

Vaselenak was 2-for-5 with two runs scored. His three RBI give him 27 as the first baseman batted .275 this summer.

“It didn’t finish the way we wanted to, obviously, but it’s still a fun game to be a part of when there are lots of hits going on because the ball is always in play,” said Vaselenak, who said it can be challenging to stay focused in a four-hour game. “But at the same time with all those hits happening you’re always in the game. It makes it a little easier when there are lots of hits.”

As is the tradition late in the regular season in the WCBL, the five teams in the league take a roster hit with players leaving for school.

As they wrap up the regular season with a four-game set against the Gulls, the Bulls are no exception.

“We’ve had a few guys leave and coming right up we have a quite a few guys leaving as well,” said Wheatley. “Every team is going through it and you just have to piece it together.”

That’s especially true with the pitching staff.

“We have a lot of innings to fill with some of our big starters leaving,” said Wheatley. “We have some guys in the bullpen who are getting more chances now and for the most part they’re doing a good job of showing they should get some innings in the playoffs.”

The Bulls used five pitchers in Wednesday’s loss.

Bryce Fraser started it with two and two-third innings of work before John Vulcano put in two and one-thirds innings.

Kade Kahlert threw one and two-thirds innings and Ardan Berg went one-third inning before Ty Schaffer pitched the final two innings, taking the loss. He allowed one run on two hits, issuing no walks and striking out one.

“For the starters we’re trying to keep the pitch count low so they’re ready to go for the playoffs,” said Wheatley. “Keeping the pitch count low as we’re going into the playoffs is what we’re worried about right now.”

Meanwhile, Vaselenak heads back to Arkansas for his third year.

“It’s been a fun summer,” he said. “It’s been a great group of guys to play with. I hope lots of them come back next year so we can hopefully finish out the season with more guys here.”

Still, he was looking forward to year number three in the States.

“Obviously, summer ball is fun – all baseball is fun – it’s just two different feelings, the school year compared to summer ball,” said Vaselenak. “But I’m excited either way it goes.”

Seven of nine Bulls had multi-hit games.

Goodwin led the way with a 3-for-5 outing with two runs and one RBI.

Fitzsimmons was 2-for-6 with one run scored and Or was 2-for-5 with two RBI.

Penner was 2-for-5, scoring two runs, Dick was 2-for-4, scoring two runs and adding one RBI and Kabayama hit 2-for-5 with one run scored and one RBI.

Dawgs Black outfielder Clayton Keyes was 4-for-4 with three runs score and three RBI.

Kaden Zarowny, Alejandro Cazorla and Connor Crowson each had three hits for Okotoks.

Cody Hendriks earned the win for the Dawgs Black, tossing four innings and allowing two runs on five hits, giving up no walks and striking out one.

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