After hitting the halfway point of the North Central Alberta Baseball League schedule, the Westlock Red Lions returned to work last Thursday with a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Blackhawks.
Manager Adam Sawatzky got the start and pitched six innings en route to the July 2 home field win over the Blackhawks.
The Red Lions fell behind 1-0 early on in the game, but recorded three runs in the fourth and held on for the victory.
Sawatzky praised his team’s effort matching up against a tough left-handed pitcher.
“We faced one of the toughest pitchers in the league, a lefty, which is rare for us, we don’t see a lot of lefties,” he said. “He kept us off balance for a couple innings but we managed to get some hits and score some runs.”
Sawatzky said he also liked his hitters’ approach at the plate in the club’s seventh victory of the season.
“I liked everybody’s approach, everybody had a good idea of what they were trying to do and were able to execute,” the skipper said. “I really liked the bats, defense, and pitching. Everything was really good.”
Even after falling behind 1-0 with a good pitcher on the mound for the Blackhawks, the league’s best defensive team, there was no sense of panic on the Lions’ bench.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence with our hitting this year. We’ve been putting up a lot of runs against all sorts of teams,” Sawatzky said.
“Being down one run didn’t bother us a whole lot and everybody stuck with the game plan and it showed.”
Late in the game the Lions were able to stave off a Blackhawks comeback attempt, which saw the visitors load the bases with no outs.
Edmonton was only able to cash in a single run to cut the lead to one, but it was as close as the Blackhawks would get.
“We got out of that inning, luckily enough without giving up the lead,” Sawatzky said. “It was a big momentum thing for us, we felt pretty confident going into the seventh.”
The Lions are back in action July 9 as they travel to Sherwood Park to take on the Athletics.
