Indians turn streak around with weekend wins
The Swift Current Indians finished their final weekend in the regular season with a pair of wins to put a five-game losing streak in the rearview mirror.
They picked up wins over Melville and Yorkton at home on Saturday and Sunday as they held on to their narrow lead over Moose Jaw in the Central Division pennant race.
The Indians’ losing streak reached four games when their bullpen unraveled in a 10-3 loss to the visiting Yorkton Cardinals on Wednesday. The Indians led 2-1 after six innings before Yorkton scored five runs in the seventh and four in the eighth.
Yorkton made five errors in the contest but the Indians only managed six hits and made three errors of their own.
Sean Callegari made another quality start, allowing five hits, one walk, and one run while striking out eight over six innings for the Tribe.
Five relievers then allowed 11 hits and nine runs over the final three innings.
Cole Roark picked up the win for Yorkton, allowing just one earned run and two unearned runs over eight innings, while striking out six to improve to 2-1.
Josh Johnson and Matt Spillman both stole bases and scored in the loss. Darren Kolk tripled and scored and Hunter Owen had the only two runs batted in for Swift Current.
Thursday, the Indians were simply outplayed by the rival Okotoks Dawgs as their losing streak reached five games in a 5-2 loss.
The host Indians made three errors and the Dawgs capitalized on them for two runs in the third inning and two more in the fourth for a 5-0 lead after opening the game with a run in the first inning.
Swift Current scored their only runs on a Justin Lee two-run home run in the fifth inning to score Taylor Steen.
The Indians did have nine hits and a couple of walks but had two runners thrown out at second base on stolen base attempts and one gunned down at home plate while attempting to score on a single from second base.
Peter Irvin took the loss after his defense let him down during his 3.2 innings. He allowed eight hits, one walk, five runs, three that were earned, while striking out three.
Connor Harris, Chad Kim, Robbie DeVries, and Kolk all made scoreless relief appearances for the Tribe.
Saturday, the Indians broke out of a five-game losing streak in a 10-4 win over the visiting Melville Millionaires. The two teams were tied 1-1 after three innings before the Tribe scored in four straight innings, including a four-run fifth inning and two runs in both the sixth and seventh innings.
Leadoff man Josh Johnson helped spark the win with three hits, two stolen bases, and three runs scored. Second baseman Matt Spillman had two hits, two runs batted in, a run scored, a walk, and a stolen base as well. Eros Modena doubled and singled and added two RBI. Eric Sams added two hits, a run scored and an RBI. Steve Thompson provided his team with an opportunity to end their losing streak with an outstanding start. He allowed only five hits, one walk, and an unearned run over seven innings, while striking out 11 to lower his earned run average to 1.39. Harris and Zach Manley both pitched in relief to close out the game.
Sunday, the Indians earned another valuable win, upending the visiting Medicine Hat Mavericks 6-4. Indians shortstop Hunter Owen turned a tidy double play during last week’s 5-2 loss to the Okotoks Dawgs. Third baseman Justin Lee chased an Okotoks baserunner back towards the bag after an infield single last week. The Indians erased a pair of deficits, including a 3-0 hole in the first inning when they quickly responded with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the frame. Medicine Hat jumped ahead 4-3 just as quickly but the Indians scored the final three runs to clinch their second straight win.
Juan Pizarro picked up the win as he recovered from a shaky start. He allowed seven hits, one walk, and four runs over 6.2 innings while striking out six. DeVries came on and got the next four outs before Manley picked up the save with a perfect ninth inning.
Hunter Owen helped lead the offense with a single, walk, run scored, and run batted in. Liam Goodall helped turn the order over with a pair of doubles, a run scored, and an RBI from the nine spot. Modena singled, scored a run and stole a pair of bases as well.
“That was a big win, an important one,” said coach Joe Carnahan after Sunday’s win. “We gave up three in the first and the bottom half we matched them with three. That was very encouraging to see. Our pitchers threw well and did a good job. Offense did well, ran the bases well, and we played good defense, a good all around win.”
“We were only up a game on Moose Jaw so every game in this last stretch is very important,” added Johnson, who had an RBI single in the win. “Coming off the losing streak we got the momentum yesterday with the win and then we win today. We will keep the snowball effect going and hopefully win out the rest of the games and go into the playoffs with a head of steam.”
Johnson is a college teammate of starting pitcher Juan Pizarro.
“I kept telling him we are going to tie it up 3-3 and we will start the game over. He said, ‘Alright, you tie it up and we will win this game.’ I said, ‘Alright, go out there and do your thing,’ and he did ... He did a good job of settling back down.”
The Indians playoff race looked liked it was going to go down to the final day when they hosted Moose Jaw.
“All games are important to us, but I guess these ones might mean a little bit more because we haven’t clinched or anything like that. We are going to have the same approach every day no matter what because we want to get the ‘ W’ and that is how we play the game,” said Carnahan.
The Indians have been a streaky team all season, recently winning eight straight games, followed by a fivegame losing streak, followed by the two weekend wins.
“The guys are playing well. We had a hiccup there last week but the guys are playing well, having better at-bats here these last two games and things are looking pretty good,” said Carnahan.