With the best record in the Western Division, the Okotoks Dawgs prospects look good in the opening round of the WCBL playoffs this week.
The big issue? They face those pesky Edmonton Prospects.
The Prospects have knocked off the higher-seeded Dawgs in the opening round each of the last three seasons, but this is a new season.
“Nothing against Edmonton, nothing against any other team, now it’s a race,” said Dawgs coach Mitch Schmidt. “There is that whole thing in it’s the same series as the last three years, but it’s different this year.
“Plain and simple, we have to do our job, play good defence, throw strikes, score some runs and have a little fun.”
The opening game of the best-of-three-games series goes Thursday at Seaman Stadium at 7 p.m.
Edmonton Prospects coach Jordan Blundell agreed last year is yesterday's news.
"Hopefully it means something to them and they don't want to play us," Blundell said with a chuckle. "To be honest, every year's team is different. It's baseball. We just need to execute. That's how you put yourself in a position to win a playoff series. There's no real magic."
The Dawgs sit at 39-15 as of Wednesday while the Prospects were 29-27, but are riding a seven-game winning streak.
Okotoks won six of the eight games against the Prospects during the summer.
Okotoks goes into the series with a team batting average of .306, tops in the league. They are led by Tristan Peters, who leads the league at .395. He also is third in the league with 10 homers. The Dawgs have five players, Peters, Jaxon Valcke, Davis Todosichuk, Jacob Melton and Will Hollis hitting over .300 (with the required 2.7 plate appearances per game).
"Tristan Peters in my mind is the MVP of the league," Blundell said. "He can field, hit, run. He's fun to watch, but we want to limit his ability to affect the game."
Edmonton has a team average of .265. Its top hitter is Travis Hunt at .347 and seven dingers.
“He swung the ball real well against us,” Schmidt said. "We kept hitters charts on him to see what the tendencies are. If our pitchers execute, he won’t hit .347 against us.”
Schmidt has not made a hundred per cent decision on the Game 1 starter.
“We are kind of looking at Nolan Ruff on Game 1,” he said. “But it’s all tentative right now.”
Ruff was 7-0 this summer with a pi-like 3.14 ERA. He had 65 strikeouts and a microscopic six walks. In his two appearances against Edmonton, he got the win in both games and allowed three runs in 14 innings.
The series is a best-of-three affair this year.
“A best of three, it is either put up or shut up – it makes you play at a higher level sooner,” Schmidt said. “If you lose a game, you're a game away from elimination.”
It is a college league and some players may be leaving for school before the end of the playoffs. Schmidt said the UBC contingent has to get back, but he expects to have Thunderbird Valcke, who is second on the team in hitting at .352, for the Prospects series.
The Dawgs will likely go with Justin Hammergren on the bump for Game 2 in Edmonton on Friday.
Schmidt stressed at this point the pitching decisions are not final.
He anticipates the Prospects will counter with Hunter Boyd (5-2) and Matthew Erickson (4-2) in the opening games. Both of Erickson's losses came against the Dawgs. Boyd through a complete-game six-hitter in beating the Dawgs 10-1 way back on June 8, the only time he faced Okotoks.
Blundell didn't say he would start on Thursday, but he expects Boyd to get the ball for Game 2.
"We will see where are arms are at today," Blundell said on Wednesday.
If Game 3 is needed, it is back in Seaman Stadium on Saturday at 7:05 p.m.
The other West semifinal pits the Medicine Hat against the Lethbridge Bulls.
While in the East, its Moose Jaw Millers vs. the Regina Pats. The Swift Current 57s take on the Weyburn Beavers in the other Eastern semi.
