2004 Championship Stories

CALGARY HERALD Thursday, August 12, 2004
Dawgs dominant in bringing title to city
Eight-run first decides Game 3
MURRY RAUW
Calgary Herald

The Calgary Dawgs left no question about who was the best team in the Western Major Baseball League.

The Dawgs won their seventh straight playoff game Wednesday when they hammered the Swift Current Indians 13-1 at Foothills Stadium to claim the best-of-five WMBL final in three games.

It was no contest.

The Dawgs came out of the dugout ready to swing the bat. They sent 13 hitters to the plate in the first inning, scoring eight runs.

The drama disappeared for the Dawgs’ record crowd of 3,462.

“It was good we scored early and took the pressure off the defence and our pitching staff,” said Calgary first baseman John Yiu, who was 4-for-4 and was hit by a pitch during his last plate appearance. “They were out of the game by the second inning.”

A championship baseball season has been rare for Calgary pro or semi-pro teams. The Calgary Cannons never won a Pacific Coast League championship, Calgary never claimed a title in the Pioneer League. the Calgary Outlaws’ only season ended at the all-star break, when the Canadian Baseball League disbanded. “We asked. Nobody can recall the last one,” said Dawgs president Will Gardner. “We asked Russ Parker, we asked Bill Clapham and we asked older fans, but nobody knows when the last one was.”

This year’s edition of the Dawgs showed championship potential from the day the season started. But they didn’t win their division: the Lethbridge Bulls claimed that distinction.

The Dawgs then swept a best-of-three series against the Bulls in the opening round of
the playoffs.

“We jelled from the beginning,” said Dawgs’ Louisiana import Jeff Janzen. “We were 14-1 and when that happens, it doesn’t take long to bond as a team.”

Calgary manager Dave Robb was forced to overhaul his pitching rotation as the season progressed and expected starters Kyler Newby, Matt Ircandia and Geoff Freeborn were forced out during the season with arm or shoulder injuries.

But Dan Osachoff and Jason Miller stepped into the rotation and Luis Roberts was the ace of Calgary staff all year. Robb had Roberts, who was 7-3 during the summer, rested and ready for the third game, the first of the series at home.

It was almost too easy for Roberts. He pitched eight scoreless innings. The Indians’ only run was unearned, coming with two out in the ninth.

Indians starter Kelly Horaska was battered into the second inning, when the Indians made their first pitching change.

The Calgary Sun, Thursday, August 12, 2004
DAWGS RULE
Local squad whips Swift Current to claim title
Cameron Maxwell

The sweep was a thing of perfection.

Not only did the Calgary Dawgs win the Western Major Baseball League championship, they did so without losing a single game. The local club capped its run with a 13-1 victory last night in front of 3,462 fans at the Dawg Pound to sweep the Swift Current Indians and set a WMBL record. Throughout the post-season, the Dawgs, in their second WMBL season, didn’t lose a single game. They swept Medicine Hat and Lethbridge before blanking the Indians.

It was sweet revenge for the Dawgs after Swift Current eliminated them from the playoffs in the Western Division final last year before moving to the East for this campaign.

“They’re our big eastern rival and in the two years that I’ve been there, they’ve been the team to beat,” said Dawgs second basemen Vince Ircandia, one of the 11 Calgary and area players on the team. “It felt good to kind of take it to them a little bit … and this is an experience we’re never going to forget.”

The Dawgs’ dominant lefty, Luis Roberts, picked up his third post-season victory, cruising through six innings for the win. The University of Lethbridge fireballer, who hails from Dartmouth, N.S., fanned nine, scattered seven hits, didn’t walk a batter and didn’t allow any runs.

“It felt great out there and just wanted to come in and throw strikes,” said Roberts. “This has been one of the best experiences in baseball in my life, coming here and playing in such a great facility with great fans showing up every day supporting the team. To get the chance to close it out, I can’t really explain it - it’s awesome.”

It didn’t take long for the Dawgs to show their bite, bursting out of the gate with an explosive, eight-run first inning where, amazingly, every run came with two outs. Calgary sent 13 batters to the dish and Indians starter Kelly Horuska, who faced 11 hitters, could only manage to rack up two outs.

Dawgs first baseman Jon Yiu had a good night at the plate, going 4-for-4 with two RBI.
Calgary put up three more runs in the second, sparked by Ircandia’s two-run double and the Dawgs never looked back.

Swift Current got its only run in the ninth, thanks to an Ircandia error after he moved from second to third base and booted a fairly weak grounder, allowing the Indians Conrad Funk to score. The Dawgs outhit the Indians 18-9.

“It felt good to take it to them … this is an experience we’re never going to forget.”
Calgary Dawgs second basemen Vince Ircandia on beating Swift Current 13-1 to win WMBL championship