Rocky rallies late against Indians to take PBL title

The Innisfail Indians' push for a sixth Parkland Baseball League title came to an end Friday night after a late-inning blow-up in game two of the best-of-three PBL Championship against the Rocky Red Dogs.

The Red Dogs came into the game with a 1-0 edge in the best of three championship after winning game one 7-2 at home on Aug. 17. The title was the Dogs' fifth overall and first since 2006.

Innisfail led the game 3-1 heading into the seventh and were three outs away from forcing a deciding game three in Rocky Mountain House on Sunday before the Dogs rallied for seven unanswered runs against the Indians Jay Kirkham to win game two 8-3. The team mobbed starting pitcher Morgan King after he set down the Indians one-two-three in the bottom half of the frame for the win.

“I’m pretty pleased with everyone’s effort to stay calm and focused even though we were down two,” the Dogs’ Cam Erickson said minutes after receiving the Players Cup from Indians founder Ray Bergeron. “To put a rally up in the seventh inning was pretty impressive.”

The Indians had opened the scoring in the home half of the first. Blain Hoppins lined the second pitch he saw from King to the fence in left field for a leadoff double. After stealing third, Hoppins came home on Steven Bouteiller’s RBI single down the third base line. Bouteiller moved into scoring position after Darcy Nielsen hit into a fielder’s choice but was stranded after King got both Kyle Burkitt and Riley Wik to groundout.

Dallas King’s one-out bloop single to left got things started for the Dogs in the top half of the second. He moved to second on Kris Johnson’s walk and scored after Kelly Ceasor’s well-struck ball got under the glove of Indians left fielder Brenden Nicolay and skipped under the fence for a ground rule double.

After leaving a runner on third in the bottom of the second, the Tribe scored two in the bottom of the fifth to take a 3-1 lead. Nicolay singled to right with one out but was thrown out trying to make it to third on Hoppins’ second hit of the game. After Bouteiller was hit by a pitch, Nielsen lined a pitch up the middle for an RBI single with Bouteiller moving to third and Nielsen advancing to second on the throw home. Burkitt then drove in Bouteiller with a hard hit ball to the second baseman.

After Indians starting pitcher Jay Kirkham set down Rocky in order in the top of the sixth, the Indians had another chance to pad their lead in their half of the inning. Steve Reaman reached first on a fielder’s choice with one out, and moved to third on a single from Tristan Cunningham. King then caught Cunningham in a rundown following a pickoff attempt to end the inning.

In the top of the seventh the Dogs scored seven runs on six hits, one walk and a error.

After posting a record a seven wins and 10 losses in the regular season most teams had the Indians pegged as heavy underdogs, Indians head coach Steven Bouteiller said.

“We knew other teams had respect for us and I always knew we had the talent to do it,” he said. “Our record didn’t show it but we brought it together at the end of the year and wheeled through the final tournament with some close games.”

With a young core of players set to return next season, Bouteiller said the team will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.

“I definitely hope we make the championships next year – I think all teams should aspire to that, but I think we have a great core group of guys. The talent’s there and we’ve proven we can get there with kind of a young team that wasn’t playing that well to start with.”