It’s not how you start it’s how you finish.
Riding a ton of momentum from a strong end to the season the Okotoks Outlaws Orange mounted a late comeback to claim the Baseball Alberta 15U AA Tier III Provincial Championship in extra-innings Sunday in Edmonton.
“It was a team that struggled for most of the year. A team that would get an error and it would just snowball,” said Outlaws head coach Ron Lugowski. “We just kept working with them and teaching them to trust their teammates, try to forget mistakes right away and keep playing. And they started to do that.
“The last month they really gelled as a group and you could see it this past weekend.”
It took a lot of that togetherness for the Outlaws to come home with the gold in a roller-coaster 7-5 victory over the Leduc Giants.
Okotoks was down to its final out trailing 2-1 before rallying to tie it up and force extra innings.
“There were two outs, down by one, runners on third and first,” said Outlaws infielder Adam Rowland. “Teammate Beynon Gwilliam up to bat, pulls a bunt down the third base line, beats it out to first and Kaleb Brown slides into home-plate for the tying run.
“As soon as the umpire yelled safe we just went absolutely nuts on the bench, throwing bats, throwing helmets, everything went flying.”
Okotoks, the away team in the final, got on the sticks in a major way in extras, putting together a five-run inning before closing it out on an outfield assist.
“We strung a lot of hits together, knocked in a lot of runs, a lot of guys came up clutch to secure that lead,” Rowland said. “They singled into left, outfielder grabbed it, the runner was going and got a little off second base and threw it into third and third baseman Jacob Comer put the tag on him.
“And we just went absolutely nuts on the field.”
Starting pitcher Dryden Harding put the Outlaws in a position to win the final with a terrific performance on the bump. Talon Dorin then came on in relief and fought through injury to seal the deal.
“Dryden Harding pitched a great game, gave up only two hits, two runs,” Lugowski said. “We had to pull him because he maxed out on pitches with one out left in the seventh and he had 12 strikeouts at that point.”
In round-robin, Okotoks got past the host Edmonton Padres in a game that went over two days due to significant hail in the capital. The Outlaws blanked the Barrhead Orioles 10-0 to qualify as the top seed out of the pool.
The Outlaws then lorded over the Coronation Royals 11-7 in a competitive semifinal.
“We were feeling pretty good, but understood there was a lot of good teams there that we had to beat,” Rowland said. “We just came out to play, we were ready to play.”
An extra source of motivation for the Outlaws was teammate Connor Martin who’s taking his baseball talents from Okotoks to Abbotsford.
“We just really wanted to win it for him,” Rowland said. “And go out there and make sure he had a memorable experience. We all just really wanted to get a win under our belt for the last game of the season.”
Rowland, the heart-and-soul shortstop on the squad, hit three dingers at provincials and was named the Outlaws tournament MVP.
“He’s just been a leader all year,” Lugowski said. “He battles every play, he’s the guy who’s going to get dirty and dive for balls and even if he misses it he just keeps the guys up, keeps them pumped. This weekend he was just a beast.
“He hit three home-runs, he pitched in our semifinal game and pitched three innings to hold the lead. He’s well deserving of MVP.”
For more information on the team go to OkotoksOutlaws.com
