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A four-game sweep of the cellar-dwelling University of Calgary Dinos has vaulted the Okanagan College Coyotes into first place in the Canadian College Baseball Conference.
Hosting the Dinos at Elks Stadium on the weekend because poor weather and field conditions in Calgary made the scheduled regular-season games unplayable, the Coyotes racked up a pair of lopsided wins on Saturday (11-4 and 12-7) and closed out with two victories (10-6 and 4-2) on Sunday to extend their winning streak to 10 games and improve to a league-best 12-5 record on the season.
Kelowna’s Davis Todosichuk, in his final season with the Coyotes, set the stage for the weekend’s offensive outburst by the hosts in the first game on Sunday, collecting five hits, four of which were doubles, and scoring four times.
Trevor Mlait, Jake Fischer, Erik Junnola and Jared Dulaba all contributed a pair of hits to the 15-hit onslaught while Dulaba also drove in two runs with a double.
Rookie Chris Wyslobocki of Toronto earned his second win of the season, pitching a solid seven innings in which he gave up six hits and struck out five Dino batters. All four runs against him came in the bottom of the sixth inning when U of C strung together a couple of singles and capitalized on an OC error.
In Game 2 on Sunday, the Coyotes scored their 12 runs on nine hits and 14 walks issued by the shaky Dinos’ pitching staff. Brandon Graham drove in two runs with his fourth home run of the season, tying him for the league lead in that department.
Noah Wood-Jolivet smacked a double and a triple and finished with two runs-batted-in while Mlait added a pair of singles and scored twice for the Coyotes.
While starting pitcher Aiden Mordecai of Cloverdale struggled through four innings, allowing seven runs, Jesse Poniewozik proved to be the relief OC needed. The Edmonton product limited the Dinos to just one hit, struck out three and walked four in his four innings of work.
The Coyotes continued their offensive barrage in Monday’s first game at Elks. Wood-Jolivet, who would finish the weekend with a .362 average (fourth best in the CCBC), connected four two hits, drove in two runs and scored three times to lead his team.
Jared Frew also had a pair of hits — including a double — and drove in a run. He leads the league with 24 RBI. Junnola added a pair of hits and drove in three runs while Todosichuk, second in the league with a .403 average, added a double and scored twice.
Defensively, the Coyotes received a six-inning performance from winning pitcher Zac Yandeau, who gave up two earned runs on eight hits while striking out five and walking five. Brandon Becking pitched two perfect innings and Trevor Brigden added a spotless ninth on the mound.
The final weekend encounter saw the Coyotes reach double figures at the plate, pounding out 10 hits in the 4-2 victory.
Fischer posted his second multi-hit game of the weekend, connecting for a double and two singles while producing two RBI. Frew raised his season batting average to .328 with two hits, including a double. Damian Obrigewitch added a pair of singles and drove in a run.
Cole Parusinni went the distance on the mound, scattering six hits over the nine innings while putting up nine strikeouts and allowing just one walk for his league-leading third win of the season. Limiting the Dinos to two earned runs, the Vancouver product sits in third place in the league with a 1.80 ERA.
The Coyotes are back in action on Wednesday when they travel to Kamloops to take on the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack for a doubleheader.
OC will play host to a twinbill against the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades on Friday (1 p.m. and 4 p.m.) while the two teams meet again for two games on Saturday (noon and 3 p.m.) in Chilliwack.
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