The Brooks Bombers dropped a heavily contested game 11-6 in Okotoks. Brayden Stauffer got the call for the Bombers and Garrett Maloney was on the mound for the Dawgs.
The Bombers got on the board quickly with Kelton Phillips continuing to make his presence felt with a solo homerun. Stauffer would come out in the bottom half with something he never had in Sylvan Lake, a lead. The Dawgs got to him early with three straight hits to tie the game up. Stauffer would battle back to get out of the inning with minimul damage.
The next two innings flew by as both pitchers settled in until the 4th inning where Maloney ran into some troubble and Evan Leibl drove in Jacob Gillis to tie the game.
The Dawgs would respond in the bottom half however with Jason Arriola and Eiji Sawamura reaching base to set up Ricardo Sanchez who drove home a run. Stauffer would get pulled after that earned run going three and a third innings giving up seven hits and striking out three.
“Grayden had a great bounce back game after a tough one in Sylvan Lake”, said pitching coach Jake Zettel.
Tyson Killbreath would enter the game and struggle at first giving up four runs as the Dawgs took a 7-2 lead. This is when the Bombers would start to chip away. Brooks would score in four straight innings to cut the deficet to 1. Killbreath would settle in chucking up three straight scoreless innings .
“Tyson was awesome tonight especially given how long we left him in for”, said Zettel.
There seemed to be a different energy within the team. Shortstop Antony Gilbert was busy all night making a number of impressive plays and noticing the difference in the team.
“Our clutch factor was higher tonight, this was definitely our most competitive game of the season and it definitely will bring the guys closer”, said Gilbert.
The Dawgs rained on the Bombers comeback plans with a four run bottom of the 8th but there are plenty of positives for head coach Dan Morgan.
“We talked before the game about a few adjustments and I think our two strike appraoch improved alot tonight and allowed us to stay in at bats”, said Morgan.
The Bombers will finnish the week at home agaisnt the Edmonton prospects at 2:05 on sunday afternoon.