An equal parts resilient and relentless attack ensured the Dawgs Academy went back-to-back.
The Okotoks Dawgs 15U Black earned their second straight Canada Day Classic Tournament title with a mercy rule 17-7 victory in six innings over a tough Saskatoon Astros Squad to put an exclamation point on a dominant four-days of undefeated action, Sunday afternoon at Conrad Field.
“It’s super important for us winning on our home field and how beautiful it is,” said Dawgs 15U coach Aaron Ethier. “It’s cool for the guys to win in front of their parents, all the people that came out to watch them.
“And I think it’s important too for all the teams that come in to know that this is ours and you’ve got to come take it from us.”
In the final, the Astros struck first with a two-run top of the first inning.
In the bottom half, Dawgs starter Taye Thierman took matters into his own hands and crushed a three-run home run to put Okotoks back in front.
“I was pretty mad because I just gave up two and wanted to somehow help my team win,” Thierman said. “In the box, hitting that three-run shot was cool and just getting the energy up. We had no energy in the first half (of the inning).”
Okotoks would score seven in the first, with Tyson Dyck adding a key two RBI double on a sharp liner, and notched seven more runs in the third with leadoff hitter Giacobbe Decastro hitting an RBI double off the right field wall, Spencer Gordon driving in a run and Ray Han smashing a three-run home run to left centre.
“At this age, it’s tough whenever they go down early in a game, they get down on themselves,” Ethier added. “I always tell them, ‘Try and fight back, try and get one across.’ And they came out swinging right away and it was good to throw up seven on what I thought was a really good pitcher, probably the best pitcher we faced all weekend.”
Okotoks knocked on two more runs in the sixth with William Lapohn putting the finishing touches with a RBI single to end the proceedings.
“Our pitching and defence will win too, but out hitting is so important,” said Thierman. “Sometimes we don’t hit or we think we can just roll through teams and that’s when we lose games in those close games. Out hitting was very key, especially (Sunday).”
In the semifinal earlier on Sunday, starter Lucas St-Laurent had a dominant outing as the Dawgs dispatched the Regina White Sox 6-2.
“I got 12 strikeouts on 16 (batters) and I think I topped 87,” said St-Laurent. “I was throwing pretty hard today, was a little bit wild, but it was a pretty good day.”
The Dawgs went 7-0 in the competition featuring 18 teams over four days at the Tourmaline, Conrad and Riverside fields.
“That was a really good tournament,” added St-Laurent, a first-year member of the academy. “Hitting was really good, we hit a lot of home runs, triples, doubles and singles.
“Lots of people came and watched and it was really nice.”
Okotoks has enjoyed a strong 2023 season in both league and tournament play with no losses in regular season action as they look to carve a path towards the 15U AAA nationals.
“The season has been amazing,” Thierman said. “I love all the guys, I love the team. We could really go far and I think as long we stay on our game and keep getting better, we can win nationals and that’s our goal.”
For more information on the team, visit dawgsacademy.ca.
