The Weyburn Beavers found themselves up against the top team in the WCBL Tuesday night, as the Okotoks Dawgs opened a two-game set with the Beavers at Tom Laing Park. The two teams would be evenly matched until the 7th inning when Okotoks scored four runs to take the lead and held on for an 8-5 victory.
“I think, especially the first half of the game, we played really well, taking care of the baseball, and defence was sharp, and Owen McConnell had a really good start for us, and bats came around, but unfortunately in the middle innings we kind of gave them a few runs, and it snowballed a little bit, and that was kind of that,” said Beavers head coach Cam Williams after the game.
McConnell went five innings giving up three hits and one earned run, while striking out one batter. Weyburn’s Sutter Balog came on in relief, through 1 2/3 innings. He would strike out three batters but was tagged with five runs and the loss. Only one of those runs was earned.
Tanner Coddington finished off the seventh inning and pitched the eighth, allowing one run on three hits and striking out one. Ethan Webster then finished the game off in the ninth, also surrendering a single run.
At the plate, Ryan Muizelaar notched his second triple of the season and drove in two runs. Easton Mould also drove in a run. Ian Heck chipped in a double as one of his three hits on the night. Meanwhile, Niko Kekatos extended his streak of reaching base to 16 games.
The two teams will meet again tonight at Tom Laing Park. The first pitch is shortly after 7 p.m.