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Sports

TRU begin CCBC title defense

Cam Charron - Sports Editor

With two on, two out and two strikes, Doug Clark hit a walk-off single to centre field to score Aaron Lystang, capping a three-run rally in the bottom of the 14th inning to give the WolfPack a 3-2 win over the Prairie Baseball Acadamy Dawgs in their season opener at Norbrock Stadium Saturday afternoon.

The 14-inning affair was clocked at just under four hours long, played on a windy, overcast day. Clark came off the bench midway through the game went 2-for-2 including the game-winner. “I was just trying to get a piece of it,” said Clark, “just try to put it in play and hopefully something will happen, and it did.”

While the stage was set for Clark’s heroics, the game likely wouldn’t have gotten where it was without the efforts of fourth year right-handed ace Jordan Broatch, who pitched 13 strong innings, allowing just six hits, no runs and striking out ten while walking two.

“I do [like to go long innings], I like to have my own game,” said Broatch, who stranded eight PBA runners over the course of the game. “As a starter I like that, I like having the pressure on my shoulders, and I like to contribute as much as I can.”

Since Stefan Lono replaced Broatch by the time the winning run came around, Lono was credited with the victory and Broatch the no-decision.

Lono, the first year southpaw from Newfoundland, came in for the fourteenth and looked shaky. He walked four batters, twice allowing runs to score off base-on-balls, allowed two hits and struck out one. Still, the WolfPack were able to rally and he picked up the win. Kayle Wierenga got the loss for the Dawgs, pitching two-thirds of an inning in relief. Mitch Schaafsma pitched 13 strong innings as the starter for PBA, but put the first two on in the 14th and was pulled. Brian Ivan and Yoshi Nakamura had the other two RBIs for the WolfPack.

“We didn’t swing the bats as good as I thought we would, but the bottom line is ‘W’,” said WolfPack coach Ray Chadwick. “We like to say ‘you can’t win all of them if you don’t win the first one’ and we won the first one.”

“Jordan Broatch threw a gem.”

The teams had a second game to play that afternoon. The WolfPack won 3-2 again, albeit this time in eight innings. First-year centre fielder Brent Carmichael hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth to score Jarrod Ivan. Danny Moore pitched the full game for TRU, allowing five hits, one earned run, no walks and striking out three. Brandon MacKinnon picked up the loss for PBA.

It was the teams’ first meeting since TRU defeated PBA 9-8 in May’s Canadian College Baseball Championship final game.