The Okotoks Dawgs will play the Melville Millionaires in a bid to win their third straight Western Major Baseball League championship. The first two games of the best-of-five final series will be in Okotoks, AB Wednesday, August 12, and Thursday, August 13. The third and fourth (if necessary) games will be played in Melville, SK August 14 and 15, and the fifth (if necessary) game will be played in Okotoks.
The Dawgs got to the final by defeating the Medicine Hat Mavericks three games to one. The second game of the series was a 5-0 shutout by Jake Bottari (College of Idaho) and Logan Todd (Merced College); Bottari held the Mavericks to three hits over eight innings. The Dawgs won the fourth and deciding game 7-1; Anthony Cros (Northwest Oklahoma State) went 2-4 with three RBI, and Jeremy Shelby (Grambling State) hit a two-run home run. Marc Wilson (Campbellsville), Brandon Kaye (British Columbia) and Mark Hardy (British Columbia) combined to hold the Mavericks to four hits. Shelby is batting .379 in the playoffs, Wilson is 1-0, 1.12 ERA, and Kaye is 1-0, 0.00 ERA.
Article in the Globe and Mail about the Dawgs: Baseball blooming in Wild Rose Country
The semifinal series between the Millionaires and the Swift Current Indians went the full five games. The Millionaires won the fifth game 9-1, with seven unearned runs on four Indians errors. The two earned runs came on an RBI single and a home run by Josh Correia (Point Park). The Indians were held to four hits by Kevin Crumb (Buffalo) and Coty Saranthus (Southwest Mississippi CC). The only close game of the series was a 3-2 win for the Millionaires; Correia hit a home run, Shawn Lee (Bellevue) hit a home run for the Indians, and Paul Lamantia (Wayne State) scored the winning run on an error. Jason Chowning (Oklahoma) got the win. Saranthus has allowed two hits and no runs during the playoffs, and has struck out 12 during eight innings of work. During the regular season, he led the league with a record of 6-1, 0.41 ERA, and struck out 62 batters in 43 2/3 innings pitched.
