Jimmy Lafakis/MDN Souris Valley celebrates a 3-2 victory Tuesday against Hub City Hotshots. The Sabre Dogs won after Josh Paino scored on a wild pitch.

In the dog days of summer, teams take wins any way they can earn them.

The Souris Valley Sabre Dogs are fighting for their playoff lives, and the home team snuck past the Hub City Hotshots, 3-2, on a walk-off wild pitch to earn its first victory on the seven-game homestand.

Souris Valley fans celebrated “Disney and Pixar Night” Tuesday at Corbett Field. In a nod to some summer blockbusters, familiar Disney tunes such as “Hakuna Matata,” “Circle of Life” and “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” reverberated throughout the ballpark. Disney princesses also greeted young fans.

Souris Valley struck in the first inning. Leadoff hitter Phillip Childs reached base with a single, then quickly stole second. Crews Taylor ripped a deep double into the right field corner, scoring Childs.

The top of the order continued their contributions in the third inning, this time facing two outs. Mason Dinesen smacked a double to the outfield. Taylor walked. Josh Paino’s deep drive scored Dinesen, and the home team held a 2-0 lead after three frames.

Hub City could not figure out Sabre Dogs starter Cody Waters in the first four innings. The Hotshots scored a run in the fifth, as Luke Glascoe’s single brought home Ryan Olson.

Drew Pollum made a critical play in the sixth for Souris Valley. He gunned down a runner leading off second base, ending the inning and eliminating Hub City’s momentum.

“That guy was getting off a little too far,” Pollum said. “My buddy Mason (Dinesen) and I have a signal. We had a play on, it was fastball up and I just threw to second base as hard as I could. My buddy was there to make the tag.”

Sabre Dogs southpaw Cory Smith entered the game in the eighth inning. Waters, a converted starter, exited the game after giving up one run on six hits in seven innings of work.

The Hotshots then loaded the bases with no outs. A hit batsman, a single and a walk started the visitors’ half of the inning. Reliever Braden Henle stepped on the mound for the Sabre Dogs.

Parker Borg greeted Henle with a deep sacrifice fly to left field, tying the score at 2-2. Henle limited the damage after that, striking out Robbie McCargar and forcing Colton Cox to ground out.

Souris Valley went down in order in the bottom of the eighth. Reliever Chase Grillo toed the rubber in the top of the ninth. He recovered after hitting Daniel Durazo with a pitch and escaped with no runs allowed.

The bottom of the ninth started off with a bang, as Borg plunked Paino. Bo McClintock also reached base after getting hit in the back. Jase Edwards laid down a textbook sacrifice bunt, advancing both runners into scoring position.

Wilson Roubion was intentionally walked, loading the bases. On the second pitch of Pollum’s at-bat, the ball escaped to the backstop. Paino hustled home and scored.

“Just get home and score,” Paino said. “There’s not much to it. I was going to get a secondary (lead) and get home, no matter what.”

As the ball skipped away, one thought ran through Pollum’s head.

“Come home right away,” he said. “I just wanted to win the game. Anything to win the game. As soon as I saw it go by, I got out of the way and tried to wave him in right there.

The Sabre Dogs snatched the 3-2 victory and improved to 33-26 on the season. Hub City fell to 22-34.

The Lewis Division rivals will square off again tonight. The final game of the two-game series will start at 7:05 p.m.

Jimmy Lafakis covers Minot High School sports and Class B high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @JJLII30.