Bulls

The Bulls got out to a big lead on Tuesday night, but a couple innings later they were locked in a tight battle with their division rival Okotoks Dawgs. With 3 runs in the bottom of the 8^th inning, the Bulls were able to come away with a 12-10 victory to improve their record to 9-3 on the season.

The Bulls offense came out flying on Tuesday night. It was advantage hitters at Spitz Stadium last night as the flags were blowing out hard to centre field.  A lead off single from Evan Comeau, and a sacrifice bunt from Ryan Pouwells brought the last newcomer to the Bulls Mitch McGeein to the plate for the first time this season. McGeein proceeded to give the home fans what they wanted with a line drive homerun off the scoreboard in left field on his first swing with the team. The homerun from McGeein jumped the Bulls out to an early 2-0 lead.  The Bulls tacked on one more in the frame, and 3 more runs in the second. In the bottom of the 3^rd Nolan Handley also launched a homerun off the scoreboard to put the Bulls in front 7-0 through 3 innings of play. That’s where things got interesting.

Starting pitcher Tanner Jesson-Dalton cruised through his first 3 innings of work. Dalton no hit the Dawgs through the first 3 frames, including 4 strikeouts. A lead off single in the top of the 4^th paved the way for a 2 run inning as the Dawgs chipped away. The Dawgs kept coming in the 5^th as they put up 5 more runs to tie the game at 7-7 and chased Dalton from the game. Some poor defensive play followed by some timely hitting by the Dawgs erased the big lead the Bulls had held.

The Bulls and Dawgs traded two spots and the game was tied 9-9 heading to the 8^th.  In the top of the 8^th the Dawgs scratched one run across on a sac fly from Daneil Fredrickson. Heading to the home half the Bulls were down by a run. Leadoff hitter Comeau started the inning off with a walk and two batters later Mitch Dornblut tied the game with an RBI single to right field after falling behind 0-2. It was a clutch at bat from a veteran player. Travis Steinke and Lachlan Mayo followed suit with RBI hits of their own to push the Bulls in front for good 12-10. Matthew Beaton through a scoreless 9^th to seal the victory for the Bulls and pick up his first save of the season.

It was a long cold night and at times it was not the prettiest baseball. A win is a win however and the Bulls will certainly take it. The boys will be back in action tonight when they head to Brooks to take on the Bombers. Game time is 7:05pm. The next home action for the Bulls will be on Saturday when they host the Fort McMurray Giants at Spitz Stadium.