Wilson sticks thorn in Mavs’ side

By Sean Rooney on August 15, 2018.

srooney@medicinehatnews.com @MHNRooney

Living on the edge finally came back to bite the Medicine Hat Mavericks.

Once again the Mavs got behind early against the Regina Red Sox, but on Tuesday they stayed there, falling 12-1 in Game 3 of the Western Major Baseball League finals.

They still lead the best-of-five championship series 2-1 and will try to close it out again tonight on the road.

“The whole night was kind of humbling for our guys,” said Mavs head coach Andrew Murphy via cellphone from Regina. “We lined out at least eight times tonight, so overall it happens, it’s baseball.”

Sox pitcher Kyle Wilson was incredible against the league’s best offence, throwing a 122-pitch complete game in which no Mavs runner got past first base in the final six innings. Medicine Hat managed just seven hits, including three in a critical third inning which ended with Colton Wright thrown out at home plate. The visitors didn’t even score that inning, and the only run they did get came on a Reed Odland ground out in the second.

“He’s from Arkansas Tech, so he pitches in the same conference I coach in,” said Murphy, who argued Wright was safe on the play to no avail. “I know what he’s capable of and when he’s on, like he was tonight, it’s really hard to hit.”

Jumpei Akunama took the loss for the Mavs, giving up six runs in four innings. Two of those came with two outs in the first, a Phil Langlois double followed by a 2-RBI Erik Crossman single that got the crowd of 1,075 at Currie Field going.

Unlike the first two games when an early Red Sox rally was followed by a similar one from the home side to keep the Athletic Park fans excited, this time Medicine Hat had no response.

“They put things together in the first,” said Murphy. ” I would hope tomorrow we can come out and if we score first, put up a zero in the first inning kind of set a tone there.”

Catcher Matt DeNeau led off the fourth with a triple, then after two hits and two sacrifice flies a passed ball with two outs capped a four-run inning and the rout was on.

Ryan Czanstkowski went 1 1/3 innings giving up three more runs, then Connor Green also gave up three in the final 2 2/3 innings. Langlois finished 3-for-4 with a home run while Crossman was 4-for-5 with 3 RBI.

The Mavericks will throw Saskatoon senior and third-year Maverick Jared Libke in Game 4. The good news for Murphy is that his team didn’t get too down on themselve despite the lopsided result Tuesday. He’s hoping they can bounce back and avoid Game 5 back at home Thursday.

“Our guys still never gave up, it’s ridiculous,” he said. “They’re still just positive talking in the dugout, everyone’s bringing each other up. The only positive probably is that we lined out a lot, that happens.”

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