Jon Cotter led the game off with a single and finished the game by advancing to first on an error to score Kevin Gratza and give the Moose Jaw Miller Express the victory in extra innings.
Cotter went four-for-six, including a double and three singles on Wednesday evening to lead the Express to an 11-10 victory in 11 innings over the Weyburn Beavers in Western Major Baseball League action.
“I was seeing it pretty well. I hadn’t played in a couple of games and I really didn’t know what to expect,” said Cotter. “I felt good all day and I felt like I was in good situations to hit and was just seeing it well. I played well.”
The Beavers started off the game with a two-run first inning, but the Express answered right back in the bottom half of the inning. It wasn’t until the third inning that the Beavers were able to utilize strong hitting, including back-to-back home runs to retake the lead.
The Express responded in the fourth inning with their own three runs, including home runs from Daniel Devonshire and back-to-back bombs by Ben Wylly and Gratza. The Beavers would respond by scoring five in the sixth inning when 10 batters got to the plate.
Down 10-6 and heading into the eighth inning, Cotter got things started for the Express with a two-out double. Logan Lippert followed with a single, scoring Cotter. Josh Carroll hit a single to advance Lippert to third and Michael Corso hit a double to score both Carroll and Lippert. Another double by Scott Jones scored Corso to tie the game.
“We scored a lot of runs and had a lot of hits with two outs and that is good to have that in the tank,” stated Michael Hunt, head coach of the Express.
It wasn’t until the 11th inning that Wylly and Gratza hit back-to-back singles before Cotter hit a ball that Weyburn’s right fielder committed an error on to score Gratza for the victory.
“Whenever you walk-off win, you get closer and closer,” stated Cotter after getting mauled by his teammates at first base. “Whenever you are down and fighting back, the team keeps getting better.”
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
