The Westlock Red Lions are the 2015 North Central Alberta Baseball League champions following a 2-1 series win over the Camrose Axemen.
The Lions wrapped the series Sunday afternoon in Camrose with a convincing 10-5 win to claim the title, while Lion Chris Brand was named series MVP.
“It feels great,” said manager Adam Sawatzky. “It was a long season but you work all season to get to this point and to come through and execute in the finals is a great feeling and a great accomplishment by this group of players.”
Up 3-0 at the bottom of the second in Game 3, the Red Lions withstood an Axemen comeback that meant by the end of the fourth inning, the crucial game was tied at three.
Yet the newly-crowned champs kicked it up a notch to plate another runner in the fifth. And ultimately a change on the mound for the Axemen turned out to be a windfall for the Lions and they tacked on six runs in the seventh to run away with the game.
“They were throwing a pitcher they had thrown yesterday, so we knew he would be tired,” Sawatzky said. “We took advantage of it and scored some runs early.
“Our pitcher Curtis Burlet was just on point all day, throwing a lot of strikes and getting ahead of hitters.
“We were just grinding it out. Everybody was just base hit, base hit, base hit and it culminated in a lot of runners and put pressure on their defense.”
On Saturday the Axemen took Game 1 5-1, while the Red Lions rebounded in Game 2 with a tight 6-5 victory.
“We knew they had just played their best game (Game 1) and we didn’t, so we had more give. We knew we weren’t going to see any better out of them, so we were pretty positive going into games two and three,” Sawatzky said.
Game 2 was tight throughout at the clubs were tied 4-4 in the later innings. But a mistake at first base in the clutch allowed a couple Lions to get home and give them a two-run lead.
The Axemen were able to pull one back, but it wasn’t enough and Westlock’s victory pushed the series into Sunday’s third and deciding game.
