The Canadians found a winning formula Thursday night — a seventh inning rally and some strong relief pitching from Dean Holoien.
The Canadians came from behind twice in the seventh inning to win the first two games of the Memorial Field fastball league final.
“We won both games in the seventh inning. You don’t see that too often,” said Colin Folk of the Canadians. “We booted the ball both games, but finally the guys settled down . . . so we started playing.
“Our team has good hitters. One through nine we can all hit and the boys came through tonight.”
The Canadians won Game 1 7-6 and won Game 2 by a 8-5 score.
Game 3 will be Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.
Canadians 8 Remax 5
Trailing 5-4 Jeff Weekes of the Canadians hit a leadoff home run to dead centre field to tie the game in the top of the seventh.
Dane Roy and Sean Lougheed were on when Colin Folk hit a three-run home run to nearly the exact same spot to give the Canadians an 8-5 win.
Holoien came on in relief for the second time that night and pitched 4 1/3 of shutout relief. He allowed a hit and struck out six.
Holoien hit a two-run home run in the first and Lougheed added a solo home run in the second to give the Canadians a 3-1 lead.
Remax scored four runs in the bottom of the third when Kevin Schellaberg hit a two-run single to go ahead 5-4.
Canadians 7 Remax 6
Trailing 6-4 heading into the bottom of the seventh, the Canadians got going quickly.
Xavier Tremblay and Brett Friesen led off the inning with singles. Chris Holoien tied the game with a two-run triple and Weekes ended the game when he drove Holoien in with a single.
Chris Holoien finished 4-for-4 at the plate with two runs, three RBI, a double and a triple.
Friesen was 3-for-4 with three runs and a double.
Remax jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead as their first three batters of the game came around to score. Dave Beisal and Pat Swallow both walked and Lee Behrns hit a two-run double. Bill Cridland drove in Behrns.
For more please see Friday’s Times-Herald.
