The Brooks Bombers fell 11-0 on opening night to the Okotoks Dawgs at Seaman Stadium.
The special occasion meant a lengthy pregame ceremony honoring the 2023 WCBL champions. The Bombers turned to Tokyo’s Tomoki Jitsukawa while the Dawgs countered with WCBL veteran Graham Bruner.
After both pitchers cruised through the first inning the Bombers had two on with none out in the top of the second. Ned Ceklic hit into a fielder’s choice which left runners on the corners with one out for Jordan Otgen who hit into a 3-6 double play to end the inning. It appeared that Evan Leibl scored before the double play was converted but after some push back from the Bombers coaches the score board still read 0-0. Okotoks would come out swinging in the bottom half with a pair of two run singles up the middle by Eiji Sawamura and Connor Crowson.
After a three up three down top of the third from the Brooks bats the Dawgs would chip away and add two more runs in the bottom half. The Bombers would get a pair of two run singles from Evan Leibl and Will Bomersbach respectively. Unfortunately, they were left stranded going into the bottom of the 4th. Jitsukawa seemed unfazed given the score of the game retiring the Dawgs in order.
That would be the end of his night going four innings giving up nine hits and five earned runs. “I felt good”, said Jitsukawa. “He was attacking the zone and didn’t walk many batters which is a positive”, said Pitching coach Jake Zettel. Jitsukawa was able to force a lot of groundballs, but they were just able to find holes.
Okotoks would continue to be pesky at the plate taking advantage of pitches left up in the zone and would record two run innings in the 5th and 6th before adding the only homerun of the night, a solo shot off the bat of Connor Crowson.
The Bombers were unable to string hits together at the right time. Although Brooks only recorded five hits many including Jacob Gillis thought they got unlucky. Gillis had a pair of hard-hit lineouts to center field and third base. “I felt like I was seeing it well up there, the ball just didn’t find the grass”, said Gillis.
Zettel also agreed and thought his hitter’s approach was solid and a building block for this group as the season goes on. It’s easy to criticize the quality of pitching given the final score, but Zettel was happy with his pitchers. “I liked that we didn’t walk many batters and I thought we limited the damage overall”, he said.
Next up for the Bombers is a trip to Sylvan Lake on Saturday night to face the Gulls in their home opener. The team will return home on Wednesday May 29th when they will host the Moose Jaw Miller Express at Elks Field.