The Okanagan College Coyotes opened up their 10th season in the Canadian College Baseball Conference with a split — including two walk-off wins — against the seven-time defending-champion Prairie Baseball Academy Dawgs at Elks Stadium on the weekend.
In the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday, starting pitcher Chris Wyslobocki got off to a solid start in his CCBC debut as the Coyotes recorded a 6-5 win over the visiting Dawgs from Lethbridge.
The Freshman from Toronto pitched seven innings, allowing two earned runs on seven hits, while walking three and striking out five.
The Coyotes jumped out to a 5-1 lead by the second inning, but PBA chipped away to make it 5-3 heading into the ninth inning where they put up two more runs to tie the game against relief pitcher Trevor Brigden (Senior, Toronto).
In the bottom of the ninth, OC shortstop, Jared Dulaba (Senior, Port Coquitlam) singled to start the inning, followed by another single from the designated hitter Dylan Faulkner, a Freshman from Kelowna.
With Dulaba in scoring position and one out, sophomore Noah Wood-Jolivet doubled down the right-field line, scoring Dulaba from second base for the win.
Game 2 saw the Coyotes give up five runs in the first inning, but they clawed their way back for an 8-7 victory with the help of four runs in the sixth inning and two more in the ninth.
OC starter, Zac Yandeau of Plumas, Man., settled down after giving up six runs in the first two innings by holding the Dawgs scoreless in the next five. He left the game after seven, having allowed five earned runs on eight hits and two walks. He struck out four in his first CCBC outing of the season.
With the score 6-1, Coyotes catcher Jake Fischer (Junior, Edmonton) blasted his first home run of the season in the bottom of the fifth inning to get OC to within four.
After pulling into a tie with the four runs in the sixth, the Coyotes gave up one run in the top of the ninth but responded with two of their own in the bottom of the frame.
Fischer led off the ninth with a single while Eric Junnola, a Junior from Calgary, drew a base on balls. Third baseman, Brandon Graham of Prince George doubled to score both runners for a second straight walk-off win.
Freshman Justin Lanigan earned the win on the mound, throwing two innings in relief.
Graham led the OC offence with three hits, including a pair of doubles, on four trips to the plate, while Jared Frew, Fischer and Dulaba added two hits apiece in the Coyotes’ 13-hit attack.
Sunday’s games saw Prairie even up the weekend, winning both games by a 4-1 score.
The morning encounter at Elks saw PBA pitchers Liam Sabiston (seven innings) and Duncan Elgert (two innings) limit the Coyotes to one and two hits respectively while the Dawgs tagged OC starter Cole Parusinni (Senior, Vancouver) for nine hits over seven innings and Brandon Becking of Coquitlam for one in his two innings of relief.
PBA scored a run in the third inning and added the winner in the sixth while putting one up on the board in the seventh and another in the eighth.
The Coyotes were held hitless by Sabiston through six innings while the lone OC run (Kelowna’s Davis Todosichuk) was driven in by Frew in eighth.
In the final game of the weekend, the Coyotes’ offence struggled again to get runs on the board and finished with six hits.
The lone bright spot offensively came from Faulkner, who went 4-for-4 with a double and raised his weekend average to .625.
Aiden Mordecai (Sophomore, Cloverdale) had a strong start off the rubber, throwing six innings, allowing only one earned run, while scattering five hits, striking out five and walking three.
Wyatt Hummel (Junior, West Kelowna) pitched two shutout innings in relief, and Brigden threw a scoreless ninth inning.
Next up for the Coyotes will be a trip to Vancouver Island as they head to Nanaimo to face the Vancouver Island University Mariners.
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