SEVENTH HEAVEN, AXEMEN SCORE SEVEN IN SEVENTH TO WIN SEVENTH STRAIGHT

First year Axemen Dylan Borman would put the team on his back by pitching three scoreless innings of relief and walking off the Sherwood Park Athletics on tonight at Harry Andreassen Field. Camrose would head into the bottom of the seventh inning trailing 6-0 and manage to walk off as 7-6 victors as Borman would connect on a two RBI single with one out off of Athletics pitcher Forrest Hisey. The win is the team’s seventh in a row in 2015 and moves them into sole possession of first place in the North Central Alberta Baseball League at 7-2, a half of a game lead over the Edmonton Blackhawks and Westlock Red Lions as of Wednesday June 17th.

Win - Dylan Borman (2-0)     Loss - Forrest Hisey

The rally would be needed as the Sherwood Park Athletics collected six runs off of Axemen starter Joe Pasychnyk, score two in each of the second, third and fourth innings. Sherwood Park first baseman Davin Tedford would hit a two out, two RBI single in the second inning before getting throw out at second base by Axemen left fielder Kris Johnson to put the Athletics up 2-0. Another two out rally by the Athletics in the top of the third inning would net them another pair of runs, this time due to an error by short stop Chance Wheatley which saw the lead grow to 4-0 with the story much the same for the Axemen in the fourth inning. Once again with two outs the Athletics would get clutch hits from their offence this time a two out RBI single by designated hitter Riley Hole and a two out RBI single by short stop Brett McElroy would end Pasychnyk’s night. The 2014 NCABL Junior Player of the Year would surrender a total of seven hits and four earned runs before giving way to the Axemen bullpen trailing 6-0. But the big right hander would come up big for the Axemen with the bat later in the game. 

While the Axemen were struggling to keep the Athletics off of the board, the offence was struggling themselves against youngster David Erickson from Sherwood Park. The young pitcher was keeping the Axemen off of the base paths for his five innings of work, surrendering only two hits. The first was to third baseman Dylan Borman in the second inning which was promptly wiped out by an inning ending double play and the second was a single off of the bat of centre fielder Jordan Riopel in the third inning. Erickson would finish his evening by retiring the last seven Axemen hitters he would face, giving way to reliever Forrest Hisey for the sixth inning. 

Trailing 6-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, the Axemen would finally get a runner into scoring position and start to threaten the Athletics and break the shutout. Centre fielder Jordan Riopel would start the inning off with his second hit of the night followed by another single off of the bat of Joe Pasychnyk, now playing first base for the Axemen. Hisey would hit short stop Chance Wheatley with one out to load the bases but would get out of the jam by striking out right fielder Blair Mulder and getting catcher Riley Guntrip to fly out to centre fielder Andrew Kalynchuk to end the inning. But the inning was a sign of things to come for the Axemen offence in the bottom of the seventh inning. 

The top of the seventh would begin with pitcher Dylan Borman and eventually come all the way around to end with Borman with his walk off single. Borman would lead off the inning with a single followed by a single from Ryan Petryshyn. Left fielder Kris Johnson would finally put the Axemen on the board with a RBI single putting Borman across home plate to make it a 6-1 Athletics lead. The bases would load up for the Axemen after an error to Athletics third baseman Cole Viger giving Joe Pasychnyk the opportunity to make it a 6-2 game with his RBI single before being lifted for a pinch runner. Hisey would finally get his first out of the inning by getting second baseman Cal Zimmer to pop up to first baseman Davin Tedford. Short stop Chance Wheatley would make it a 6-4 game when he would drive home a pair of runs with his RBI single before right fielder Blair Mulder would get hit to load the bases. Athletics second baseman Eric Bell would be charged with an error on a ball put into play from catcher Riley Guntrip to make it 6-5 with the bases loaded and the line up flipping over to Dylan Borman. With one swing of the bat Borman would drive home the game tying and the game winning run as speedsters Chance Wheatley and Blair Mulder would cross the plate to end the game in epic fashion. 

Not surprising to anyone, Dylan Borman would be named the Axemen Player of the Game. At the plate Borman would go 3 for 4 with three singles, a run scored and a big pair of RBIs but he would also play a pivotal role in the win from the mound. Coming in relief of Pasychnyk for the fifth inning, the power pitching right hander would surrender a single to right fielder Ryan Demchuk to start off his night, but would go on to retire the next eight batters he would face, including a 6-4-3 double play to erase the single, holding the Athletics off the score board and earning his second win of the season. 

The win is without a doubt the biggest win of the 2015 for the Axemen and will rank high on the franchise list of wins, especially since it came against the rival Sherwood Park Athletics. In what has turned out to be one of the NCABL’s biggest rivalries over the last few years, the Axemen walked off the Athletics in Camrose last season as well, with a 3-2 win on May 20th. It also marks the seventh win in a row for the Axemen over the Sherwood Park Athletics in league and playoff games and the Axemen have improved to 8-2 versus the Athletics in their last ten overall games against each other. 

Next up for the Axemen will be a match up versus the Edmonton Blackhawks on Wednesday June 24 at Harry Andreassen Field in Camrose. The game will be a battle for first place between the two teams with the Blackhawks trailing the Axemen by only 0.5 games heading into Wednesday night’s tilt. The Westlock Red Lions, who are also in the mix trailing the Axemen by 0.5 games will be in Edmonton to take on the Indians on Tuesday June 23. First pitch for the game against the Blackhawks will be 7:15pm.