The Fort McMurray Giants are rolling now. The Giants (9-17) wrapped up the Canada Day long weekend with back to back wins over the visiting Melville Millionaires (8-18).
The Giants took the Canada Day game 5-0 as they were led once again by another strong outing on the mound from Nicklas Cardinal. The third year Giant pitched six scoreless innings while only allowing two hits and striking out five. Allan Brown pitched two scoreless innings in relief while David Craft remained perfect since moving to the bullpen, striking out three Millionaires batters in the 9th. The Giants generated all of their offence in the 3rd inning as six straight batters recorded a hit to score all five runs.
The Giants followed up the win the next night with a convincing 6-1 victory. Pitcher Tyler Moskalyk had his best outing of the season as he struck out eight batters over eight innings of work and allowed just three hits. The Giants racked up 14 hits with John Loschiavo, Chris Panzarella, Zach Koroneous, Tristian Richardson and Brandon Green all recording multi-hit games. Jalin McMillan capped off the night with a solo homerun in the 7th inning.
Shell Place has been fairly kind to the Giants so far this season as they are 6-6 at home. They will continue their longest homestand of the season Wednesday night as they open up a three game set with the Okotoks Dawgs (15-10). The Giants are 3-1 so far on this homestand as they picked up a split against the Edmonton Prospects (12-14) to kick things off. The Giants took the first meeting 5-2 before being foiled by Prospects pitcher Rich Walker the following night. The Arizona native pitched the first perfect game in Prospects history and the first ever thrown at Shell Place as he sat down 27 straight Giants batters. The Prospects used a four run 1st inning and some strong defence to pick up the win. Walker struck out nine batters in the game and only threw 95 pitches.
The Giants have now won 4 of their last 5 games and sit a half game out of a playoff spot as they near the mid-way point of the WMBL season.
First pitch for Wednesday’s game against the Dawgs is scheduled for 7:35 p.m.
