Mavericks take two

By Ryan McCracken on July 26, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

When Medicine Hat Mavericks reliever Sean Cruz arrived at Athletic Park Wednesday, ready to take on the rival Edmonton Prospects in a shortened doubleheader, he was greeted by three unfamiliar words: What’s up starter?

Thankfully for Cruz, his surprise responsibilities as a proverbial starter were strikingly similar to those of his usual duties — he entered the make-up game on short notice with a lead in the fifth inning and limited Edmonton’s offence en route to a 9-4 victory.

“I don’t normally start so you don’t get the pre-game jitters or anything like that. I just treated it as another outing, go out and compete,” said Cruz, whose Mavericks went on to pick up a 6-1 win in the second half of Wednesday’s Western Major Baseball League doubleheader. “The guys came out today with fire in their bats.”

Cruz kept the Prospects off-balance through four solid innings of work, holding his opponents to one run on three hits after starting the game with a 3-1 lead earned back on July 19 in Edmonton. Prospects pitcher Michael Gahan — who started the game nearly a week earlier and returned to pick up where he left off — settled for the loss after allowing nine runs on 17 hits through seven frames.

Medicine Hat product Nathan Stark closed out the game for the Mavericks, allowing two runs on three hits in the ninth.

David Salgueiro and Carson Johnson both went 3-for-5 with 2 RBI on back-to-back RBI base knocks in a five-run eighth inning.

Alex Dafoe went on to collect the Game 2 victory in Medicine Hat’s final home contest of the regular season. Dafoe held the Prospects without a run through six innings while allowing seven hits and striking out three.

Catcher David Vilches did the heavy lifting in Game 2 with a three-run no-doubter over the left-centre field fence in the second inning. Third baseman Louie Canjura cashed another an RBI single in the fourth then designated hitter Colton Wright added two-more on a long home run in the seventh.

Prospects starter Connor Burns took the loss after allowing six runs on eight hits and two walks through 6 and 2/3 innings. Edmonton added their lone run on a passed ball in the seventh.

While Medicine Hat picked up both wins to keep hope for a historic 40-win season alive by pushing their record to 36-7 with five games left, the Mavericks have struggled against the Prospects this season. It’s something Canjura says has been fanning the flames of a rivalry that dates back two summers.

“The rivalry is obviously because the last two years Edmonton has beat us in the playoffs. We’ve just been two competitive organizations who just play their baseball hard. We love playing them and we love beating them,” said Canjura, adding Wednesday was important exposure given the Mavs could face Edmonton in the first or second round of the post-season. “We like playing them because we get to see their pitching and stuff like that. It’s big.”

But that works twofold, as Prospects shortstop Aidan Huggins says the Prospects have been taking notes on Medicine Hat’s pitching staff in anticipation of another potential playoff matchup.

“Usually by the end of the year we can see each starter at least once, hopefully twice,” said Huggins, who went 3-for-4 with 1 RBI in Game 1. “It’s really big to see who they’ve got in relief, who they’ve got in the bullpen and what other kind of hidden tricks they have up their sleeves.”

Huggins added he believes the Prospects — whose record against Medicine Hat this season dropped to 3-3 following the losses —have fared so well against a team with just seven losses this season due to one simple reason: Fear.

“We kind of instilled a little bit of, I want to say fear, a little bit last year,” said Huggins. “They were scared to make errors and stuff like that, they were scared not to make the plays that they could last year. I think that’s carried over this year with their returning guys.”

While Cruz admits the Mavericks hadn’t been able to bring their best ball to the diamond in their previous matchups against the Prospects this season, Wednesday’s outcome could be a sign of things to come. Regardless, Cruz says the Mavericks had a lot of fun in the six-game season series and look forward to the prospect of meeting Edmonton in the playoffs.

“Every time we play them it’s always a battle so it’s awesome playing these guys,” said Cruz. “Against these guys, I don’t know what it is, but they grind. They can swing the crap out of the bat, that’s for sure. We know they’re great competitors.”

The Mavericks can clinch the top of the Western Division with a win tonight in Okotoks against the Dawgs. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.

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