Medicine Hat Mavericks left fielder Ryan Doucette unleashes a throw to home plate in the Mavericks 12-3 loss Sunday against the Swift Current 57's at Athletic Park. - NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Mavericks continue to ride the roller coaster of ups and downs.
The Mavs split their four-game weekend series with wins on Thursday against Swift Current and in Brooks against the Bombers 7-2 on Saturday, with losses coming Friday against the Okotoks Dawgs, 18-4, and the 57’s 12-3 on Sunday, both defeats at Athletic Park.
Catcher Dominic VanDoorne hit his first home run of the season and Bryce Libke picked up his first win on the year, tossing six innings of one-run baseball and striking out eight batters in Saturday’s victory. Lucas Teel recorded two outs and Kyle Calzadiaz worked the final 2.1 innings of the game with a strikeout.
After Sunday’s loss, where Swift Current led 7-1 after four innings, head coach Mark Goodman said they didn’t put together the complete package, registering 11 hits while only scoring three runs and committing three errors.
Johnny Vulcano led the Mavericks offence in the loss, with four hits and an RBI. Medicine Hat used four pitchers in the contest, with Tim Carlson, Garrett Nicholson, Calzadiaz and Dylan Weaver combining for five strikeouts in nine innings pitched.
Heading into Monday’s games, the Mavericks remained in third place of the Western Canadian Baseball League’s East Division with a 9-10 record, trailing first place Moose Jaw Miller Express (10-7) by two games. Looking back on the weekend, Goodman doesn’t differentiate between the two blowout losses and a 1-0 defeat because they both count the same in the standings.
“A loss by one or a loss by 12 is a loss, so I’m OK taking those licks as long as we’re battling back and staying at .500,” Goodman said. “If we can lose one and then bounce back the next day, we’re alright. To me, the score doesn’t mean as much, it’s a loss in the books.”
The Mavericks have two off days before they get back to action Wednesday, as they head to Okotoks to face the WCBL’s first-place Dawgs and kick off their busiest stretch of the season with 10 games in nine days.
With 37 games remaining in their schedule, Goodman says the Mavs need to just focus on the next week and a half and then go from there.
“We’re playing .500 ball. We’re right where we need to be, there’s no panic,” Goodman said. “There’s a lot of games left, we’re in third place in the division and we are right where we need to be. We can turn it on and get to first here in July and it’s not a problem. We just have to get through this 10-game stretch and we’ll be alright.”
