A splash of gold is becoming a Canada Day tradition for the Okotoks Dawgs Academy.
The Dawgs Black won their third consecutive 15U Canada Day Classic Tournament title with an authoritative 10-2 victory over the UBC Thunder on July 1 at Tourmaline Field.
“This one is always a little bit different for us because it’s usually the best teams from Alberta, from Saskatchewan and now one of the best from B.C. coming down,” said Dawgs 15U head coach Aaron Ethier. “It’s always nice showing them who we are and the fact that we get to win it at home with all of the families here, it’s pretty cool and it’s special for us.
“This tournament itself has just gotten bigger and better and it kind of speaks for itself, people know about it more and want to come. That’s what we want, we want the best competition.”
In the final, Okotoks scored two in the first inning. exploded for five in the fourth and added three in the fifth.
“That was big for us to get on the board early,” the coach added. “And the big inning, we played a lot of small ball, moved some guys over and forced them to make plays and when we did that, we had some success.
“It took everybody, from bunts, to moving guys over, to sac flies. It was a really good team effort to put five up and from there we put them away.”
On the mound, starter Ryker Schwab went five innings with Colton Ullyett-French providing two solid innings of relief to sew up the title.
“We were only going to throw (Schwab) about three, but he was cruising,” Ethier said. “And then Colton came in and shut them down for us.”
The Dawgs went a perfect 7-0 in the tournament, posting a quarterfinal win over White Butte and semifinal triumph over the Saskatoon Astros.
“It was just playing as a whole team, not just 16 individual players,” said Dawgs infielder Edmond Griffin. “And supporting our pitchers with the defence behind, making plays, doing great on offence and just playing as one.”
The 16-team tournament featured seven top teams from Saskatchewan along with UBC and a number of provincial rivals in the Calgary Cubs, Webber Wildcats and PBA Jr. Bulls, to name a few.
“The build-up to this tournament was not our best, but we came together and played together as a great team,” said Dawgs outfielder Ethan Renaud. “I think we only allowed six runs against us and we just absolutely dominated this tournament, it was so much fun.
“We’ve won this three years straight and it’s a pretty big thing to the Dawgs and all of us.”
“Every team in the academy gets a home tournament and it feels like we win it every year,”
added Griffin, a two-time tournament champion. “It’s a good group of guys every year just having fun playing baseball, it’s a family out here and I love this tournament.”
For more information, go to dawgsacademy.ca.
