NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Mavericks pitcher Dylan Weaver strides towards home plate with a pitch in the Mavericks 12-3 loss Sunday against the Swift Current 57's at Athletic Park.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Mavericks have a lot of baseball in the near future.
The Mavs kick off a stretch of 10 games in nine days, with the first tonight at Okotoks against the Dawgs. This streak, which includes a double-header June 27 at Regina against the Red Sox, marks another lengthy wave for a team that has already faced a stint of nine games in nine days, and 14 in 15.
Medicine Hat enters the stretch with a 9-10 record, good for third place of the Western Canadian Baseball League’s East division. Head coach Mark Goodman says his club needs to just get through this stretch and they will be alright, with a lot of the season left to play.
“I’m excited, it’s the hardest part of the season right here,” Goodman said. “If we can weather this storm and get through it, I think we’ll be just fine. We’re adding two new players here on Tuesday and Thursday, which should add some new blood, some new fuel and hopefully get us on a winning streak.”
Goodman says the two players, a middle infielder and a catcher/first baseman will bring new abilities to the Mavs while also putting some pressure on the current roster to step up in order to secure their role.
“I’ve told the guys, those positions are open and there are two guys who are coming in to fight for them,” Goodman said. “So if you want playing time, it’s time to step up and stop making errors.”
The Mavs continue to lead the league in errors, committing 37 through 19 games. In their last game, a 12-3 defeat at Athletic Park against the Swift Current 57’s, they notched a trio of gaffes. It could have been worse, too, with multiple double-plays left unturned due to dropped balls. It’s something Goodman says they have addressed and will continue moving forward.
“We’re going to start changing this, doing some early work trying to clean it up,” Goodman said. “It’s just frustrating, I get it. It’s hard for pitchers to continue to the grind out there when you have to get five outs an inning.”
Sunday’s loss did offer the Mavericks a positive on the pitching side, as they only allowed one walk against the 57’s. Medicine Hat leads the 10-team league in walks allowed, having surrendered 111 free trips, with 20 in their four-game stretch from last Thursday to Sunday where they posted a 2-2 record.
Goodman, who is the pitching coach at the Colorado School of Mines, a DII NCAA school, has a personal vendetta against giving up walks and free bases. His Mines team came in second in the country for fewest walks allowed last season.
He says the reduction in walks during Sunday’s game was a positive and he hopes they can build off on the defensive side of the ball.
“That’s right where we need to be,” Goodman said. “It was the errors that gave us the extra guys on base that just killed us when they finally got the hit. So if we can clean up the defence, we’re hitting it enough, we just gotta clean it up.”
Coming off Sunday’s loss, having Monday and Tuesday off and heading into that busy stretch, Goodman says he hopes to see a motivated group get off the bus in Okotoks and make their way into Seaman stadium tonight.
“I just want to see a little bit more fire back in them,” Goodman said. “The newness is kind of wearing off and hopefully those two days will bring that back into it.”
