The Swift Current Indians extended their winning streak to six games after a 6-0 win over Melville Wednesday night.
As you heard on The Eagle 94.1, Brennan Peterson's hit opened the scoring for Swift Current in front of over 500 fans on "Pack the Park" night at Mitchell Field.
Swift Current's Luke Barry then came up with a big hit for the second straight game.
Alex Tufts got the win, allowing only three hits over seven shut out innings. He struck out five and walked one.
"I had a pretty good scouting report," Tufts said. "(I) pitched against Melville in Melville with Will (Thorp) catching too, so we kind of knew what to expect... Wong hurt us a lot last time and we were able to get fastballs in and jam him."
With runner on the corners and nobody out, Tufts got out of a first inning jam with a pick-off, strike out and fly out.
"Try to do anything you can to get outs," Tufts said. "Whether it be via pitches, or pick-offs or anything.
Carnahan was impressed.
"When you get a pitching performance like that it's a good thing," Carnahan said. "Right away things didn't go our way defensively and kinda got out of that one himself... that was a big situation right away, a huge momentum swing."
Eight of the nine Swift Current batters got hits. Aaron Dunsmore went 2 for 4, extending his hitting streak to fourteen games.
It was some redemption for the Tribe against Melville pitcher Jon Mark Abbey. He shut out Swift Current the last time he faced them.
"He pitched real well against us in Melville," Carnahan said. "He didn't pitch bad here today, our guys just ended up squaring up a couple of balls and getting some key hits in key situations."
Millionaires Coach Bric Steed had the distinction of being kicked out of the game twice. He was booted for arguing a call in the bottom of the 5th inning. Steed reportedly didn't realize he was kicked out of the game and was tossed again when he came out to argue another call an inning later.
Click here for Wednesday's boxscore
It's a unique blip in the schedule for the Swift Current Indians Thursday night. They're playing a doubleheader in Weyburn, which they will start by resuming the first game of the season. It was post-poned due to rain while tied.
"It's a 2-2 game we're in the fifth inning," Carnahan noted. "It's a shortened game... right away we gotta execute... (Weyburn has) been real hot lately. They've been beating some good teams. They've got a team that can really swing the bats well. We've got to come out and executive our pitches and we've got to play better defence. We can't give them free bases otherwise they'll capitalize on it."
The Indians locked up the WMBL Central Division on Tuesday and know they will likely play either Okotoks or Lethbridge in the playoffs next week. Carnahan isn't scoreboard watching.
"It doesn't matter to use who we play," Carnahan added. "We're just going to take care of our own business heading into the playoffs on a good note. Whoever we end up squaring off with we'll be fine."
Lethbrdige beat Okotoks 2-0 last night to come to within half a game of the Dawgs.
Meanwhile, Saskatoon topped Moose Jaw 13-7 to tie the Miller Express for the second and final playoff spot in the Central Division. Saskatoon is in Swift Current on Saturday and Sunday nights.
Interview with Indians P Alex Tufts:
Interivew with Joe Carnahan:
Sat, Apr 20, 1:00 PM
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