Bulls come battling back
It didn't take 14 innings, but the Lethbridge Bulls scored their second come-from-behind win in as many nights and it was the same player that cued the comeback.
The Bulls downed the Edmonton Prospects 8-5 during Western Major Baseball League play Friday night at Spitz Stadium to not only improve to 26-20 on the season, but move within one win of locking up second place in the Western Division.
After serving as the 14th-inning hero his his walk-off three run homer Thursday night, Jesse Hilyard came up clutch late again, drilling a triple to start the eighth inning and plating what stood up as the winning run on a single from Darius Carter.
The evening also featured three ejections — three from the Bulls and one from the Prospects — as well as what looked like the game-ending play in the bottom of the ninth when a throw to first instead wound up in right field, putting the tying run at the plate before Bulls closer Chris Stodolka was able to close out the win.
“I went into that post-game speech and I didn’t have much to say,” said Bulls coach Joel Blake, who had to take over the bench after co-coach Jesse Sawyer was tossed in the fourth inning. “But wow, it was clutch. Early on, what I found out with these guys, we may go through our ups and downs hitting, but one thing we do well is we don’t quit and we battle and scrap. That’s what we did (Thursday) night and that’s what we did again tonight and those were the two biggest games of the year.”
The Bulls took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Dylan Borman singled to centre field to score Dylan Flasch.
Edmonton put runners on second and third with one out in the third when Dean Olson walked to lead off and stole second before Zane Takhar reached first on an error to shortstop and stole second.
Michael Gahan lined out to shortstop for the second out, but Nick Spillman brought both runners in with a double down the left field line to put the Prospects up 2-1.
Spillman then scored from second on a single from Anthony Olson to make it 3-1 Edmonton.
The Prospects kept pushing in the fourth as Marion McLean singled to lead off, stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball and Matt Quartel walked and stole second.
But Bulls starter Liam Sabiston got out of it, striking out Dean Olson, before McLean was tossed out at home off a chopper to first from Derek Shedden.
Takhar grounded out to shortstop to end the threat and keep the Prospects lead at 3-1.
But the inning spelled the end of the night for both Sawyer as well as Bulls Blake Macdonald, who were ejected for questioning calls from the dugout.
A few innings later, Bulls designated hitter Brett Semeniuk was also tossed after being called out on strikes the previous inning.
“It was certainly frustrating,” said Blake. “But at that point when he’s ringing guys at will, I just had a quick chat with our guys and just told them to shut up, not another word to them. Stay in our dugout and focus on the game. That’s what we did and we did a good job battling.”
The Prospects added to their lead in the sixth when Matt Quartel sent a triple to right field that scored McLean from first for a 4-1 Edmonton lead.
That ended Sabiston’s night as David Jones came on in relief.
Edmonton then went up 5-1 on an error to second off the bat of Derek Shedden that scored Quartel.
The hosts cued their comeback with four-run sixth to tie it up.
Lethbridge loaded the bases with none in the sixth when Flasch and Ryan Pouwells walked and Alex Bishop singled to right to juice the bases.
Lethbridge made it 5-3 when Borman singled to left to score Flasch and Pouwells.
The Bulls loaded the bases for the second time in the inning with one out when Brock Frentzel walked and pulled to one when on Hadley’s RBI single that scored Bishop to make it 5-4.
After Nolan Handley went down on strikes, the Bulls tied it up when Borman scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-5.
Edmonton’s Michael Gahan doubled to start the seventh and then took third with none out, but Jones was able to induce two groundouts to shortstop and then sent down Anthony Cusati down on strikes.
Cusati didn’t agree with the third strike call and was the next player to get tossed.
The Bulls took the lead for good in the eighth when Hilyard legged out a no-out triple.
“I was just looking to hit something hard,” said Hilyard. “I got a fastball over the plate and that’s my favourite pitch to hit. It’s the same one I got (Thursday) night and I was fortunate to put in the gap.”
Then with two out, Carter singled up the middle for Lethbridge’s first lead of the game.
Flasch the padded the lead and rounded out the scoring with the inning second triple that scored Carter and Nolan Handley.
The Prospects pushed one last time in the ninth, putting runners on second and third with two out when Spillman reached second on an error to Bulls catcher Cole Hadley, whose two-out throw to first got past Bishop and into right field.
But Stodolka was able to induce a groundout to third to end the night and avoid another extrainnings marathon.
“It was a classic example of baseball, anything can happen at any given time, it was fun” said Hilyard, who went one-forfour with one run scored. “That’s a really good team and over the past couple of weeks our team has gone through a lot of adversity and we’re starting to finally get over that hill. Everybody is having fun and it was a great time tonight.”
Blake credited Hilyard for coming up big for the second time in as many nights.
“He’s clutch,” he said. “You’ve seen the size of him, he’s a big boy who’s got some pop and he he’s a multi-dimensional hitter. He can put one out of the yard, but he has a pretty good approach. He doesn’t get big often, but when he gets one, it goes. You can’t say enough about him. He’s been clutch the last two nights and hopefully he keeps it rolling in the playoffs.” Borman had the sole multi-hit game for the Bulls, going two-for-four with three RBI. Brady Moxham took the win, coming on in the eighth and striking out one. The Bulls play their final home game of the regular season tonight as they host the Fort McMurray Giants at 7:05 p.m. at Spitz Stadium. The team wraps up the regular season Sunday in Brooks against the Bombers.