Mavericks bats heat up in Lethbridge

By None on August 3, 2018.

Nick Kuhl

Lethbridge Herald

LETHBRIDGE

The regular season doesn’t matter come playoffs.

That’s what the Lethbridge Bulls were telling the Medicine Hat Mavericks. Until the top of the fourth inning hit Thursday night.

That’s when the Mavs promptly hit two of their three home runs on the night on their way to a 9-4 win in Game 3 of the Western Major Baseball League Western Division semifinals at Spitz Stadium in Lethbridge.

They’ll look to clinch the series tonight on the road.

“We just need to keep fighting at the plate, on the mound, and take care of business defensively,” said Mavs left-fielder Jaxson Hooge, who had a three-run shot in the fourth, following a solo shot from first baseman Zach Gray.

Designated hitter Sal Rodriguez added a two-run deep ball in the seventh, and the Mavericks totalled 16 hits.

Five of the Bulls’ nine hits came from Kaleb Warden and Blake MacDonald. Bulls starting pitcher Jesse Hilyard had six strikeouts but gave up 12 hits in six innings for the loss.

Earning the win was Mavs starting pitcher Jumpei Akanuma, who threw 50 pitches through two innings but managed to hold the Bulls to three runs through six innings of work.

Medicine Hat took an early lead when Rodriguez scored Carson Johnson on a two-out single in the top of the first. Lethbridge answered in the bottom half of one when MacDonald lined a shot to centre to score Ashton Roy and Warden.

Nick Ankermann hit into a RBI fielder’s choice to score DH Dustin Braun to give the Bulls a 3-1 lead in the bottom of two.

Then the top of fourth happened.

Gray hit a home run beyond right field to cut the lead to 3-2, before a bloop single by Louie Canjura and a walk by Jordan Dray. Hooge stepped up, dismissed the announcer’s song choice poking fun at his long blond hair, and hit a three-run home run beyond left centre.

“The team puts you in a position like that, you just look for a good pitch to hit and try to put a good swing on it,” said Hooge, who went 3-for-4 at the plate.

“They had a good fourth inning there,” said Bulls manager Jesse Sawyer. “We came out hot and then our bats kind of went cold. We stuck with them there for a bit, then they just pulled away with a couple good swings. We got their starter’s pitch count up, but he settled in.”

Nolan Rattai hit a one-out single in the sixth, then scored after a fielder’s choice by Dray and a hit and run single by Canjura to put the Mavs up 6-3.

A possible Bulls rally in the bottom of the sixth came after a double down the left field line by MacDonald, then both Braun and catcher Carter Witbeck being hit by pitches. But right-fielder Ankermann struck out to end the inning.

“We had some chances late in the game,” Sawyer said. “We just couldn’t get that clutch hit when we needed it. That’s the difference.”

A Colton Wright RBI double to right centre scored Johnson to give the Mavs a 7-3 lead in the seventh, then Rodriguez hit a two-run home run to deep left centre.

Mavs pitcher Sean Cruz, who came on in the seventh, walked Braun and Jaret Semeniuk in the bottom of the eighth before Braun scored on a throwing error to cut the lead to 9-4.

But that was as close as the Bulls would get. The Mavs brought in Tyler Shumpert to pitch the ninth to close it off in a non-save situation.