NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Mavericks second basemen Kellan Williamson shovels a pass to first base in the first inning of the Mavericks 11-5 loss to the Moose Jaw Miller Expres Wednesday night at Athletic Park.
The Medicine Hat Mavericks are in a funk right now.
The Mavericks dropped their third straight contest Wednesday, losing 11-5 to the Moose Jaw Miller Express at Athletic Park.
Head coach Tyler Jeske said the losses all feel the same but different in a way.
“I’m kind of at a loss for words at this point,” Jeske said. “It’s deflating, it feels like the same song, same dance right now. But it’s not the exact same song and the exact same dance, we’re sticking in the same genre but it’s a different way, a different situation, a different person. It’s safe to say we’re in a funk.”
The loss puts the Mavericks at 6-12 on the season, keeping them in fourth place of the WCBL’s East division.
The first three innings of Wednesday’s game cruised by as Mavericks starter Garrett Nicholson faced the minimum before allowing his first hit in the fourth inning. The fifth inning is when the game opened up as the Miller Express scored four runs on three hits to chase Nicholson and pickup the lead.
Nicholson ended up with the loss after striking out five batters, Hunter Cooper then took over on the mound.
The Mavericks answered back in the bottom of the fifth, scoring three runs on a two RBI single from centre fielder Braden DeSonia and a RBI single from third basemen Adrian Salazar.
DeSonia finished the night with three hits and three RBI’s, including a ninth inning home run to right field. He said it felt good to piece the ball up but said he was already looking towards their next game.
“Just forget about it, wash it, tomorrow we come back and play,” DeSonia said.
The Mavericks’ next action is Thursday, also against Moose Jaw. That game is the makeup contest for the rained-out game June 4. Fans who were in attendance for the postponed game can use their original ticket stub to get into the game.
Moose Jaw blew open the game in the sixth with six runs scored on four hits against Cooper and Isaiah Bartels on the mound. Kameron Richards took over to end the inning and the lefty worked the final three frames of the game with five strikeouts.
Medicine Hat scored one run in the seventh when catcher Deon Reese took home plate on a passed ball.
Moose Jaw added one more run in the eighth before DeSonia’s ninth inning jack brought the 998 fans in attendance some excitement to end the night. The Miller Express held on and got the remaining outs needed in the ninth for the 11-5 win.
After the loss, Jeske said his message to the players was they weren’t going to talk about Wednesday’s game and said they’ll save that for Thursday’s pre-game.
“The message simply became, this thing continues, the season continues and it’s not going to stop,” Jeske said. “We’re going to show up tomorrow and we’ll talk about the game and spend time before batting practice, before stretch. Spend 5-10 minutes just talking the game and diving a little bit more into, this is exactly how we’re getting beat, this is where we’re giving up extra bases, we’re giving up free bases. We clean these things up, our offence is capable of putting up runs.”
Jeske said the Mavericks had an early hitting opportunity presented to the team Tuesday and said his phone blew up from guys interested. He said the drive is there from his team and they’re doing a good job of staying neutral in the emotional game of baseball.
“Things are going to happen, hitters are going to strike out, they’re going to pop out, they’re going to ground out, they’re going to fail to get the job done with runners in scoring position like we did tonight,” Jeske said. “Pitchers are going to walk people, they are going to hit people, errors are going to happen. It’s the emotional response. Does it ruin your whole day or are you able to say, next pitch and move on and continue to compete.”
“I think that’s something we’ve done a really nice job of, the one positive that you can take night after night is these guys show up every day wanting to work, ready to compete.”
