NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
Medicine Hat Mavericks outfielder John Velasco drives a ball into play during his team's Western Canadian Baseball League season opener against the Brooks Bombers on Thursday, May 30, 2019 at Athletic Park.
srooney@medicinehatnews.com@MHNRooney
The smoky haze that hung over Athletic Park perfectly encapsulated opening night for the Medicine Hat Mavericks: a little off, but once it started to clear, a beautiful night for baseball.
An imperfect start had the home team behind in front of 1,041 eager fans, but their bats turned the tide to wind up with an 8-7 win.
“We laughed it off, got it together and started getting hits,” said John Velasco, whose two-out, two-run home run to left-centre field gave Medicine Hat its first lead in the fifth inning. “They’re not always pretty but a W does count.”
Nolan Rattai’s RBI single in the eighth inning held up in a back-and-forth contest that saw the Mavericks make some mistakes, but also make up for them.
Starting pitcher Jaymon Cervantes walked three of the first seven batters he faced, giving up two runs on a Spencer Rankin double. But Cervantes settled down to last four innings, the other runs off him produced by mistakes.
Catcher Reed Odland’s throwing error was penalized immediately by an Albert Vargas two-run single in the third inning. In the sixth, Garrett Nicholson’s wild pitch allowed a runner to score from third base.
The home side had an RBI double from Collin Klingensmith in the second, then a two-out single from returnee Sal Rodriguez in the fifth before Velasco got a hold of a Garrett Connor pitch.
Velasco, among the group of Californians in the Gas City this summer, packs a lot of power into his 5-foot-8, 210-pound frame.
“It was amazing, especially in front of the fans,” he said of opening night. “I loved every second of it. It’s going to be a fun, fun summer.”
Jake Scott’s solo home run in the seventh inning put the Bombers ahead 7-6. But Jarrod Manick walked in a run in the bottom half to knot the score again.
Rattai then came through with a looping single in the eighth. Manick got the loss for Brooks, now 1-2 after a pair of home games. Head coach Kyle MacKinnon, who coached the Mavericks a few seasons ago, said he was happy with his team’s effort, even though the result wasn’t what they wanted.
“We’re still working stuff out too,” said MacKinnon, whose team will host Medicine Hat tonight. “We’re still short a couple bodies, I think everyone is at this point.”
Derek Eubanks worked a couple late innings to get the win for the Mavs, while Junior Pimentel worked a scoreless ninth for a save.
There’s lots for the Mavs to figure out in the early season, and they’ll spend a good portion of that time on the road. After Friday they head to Lethbridge Saturday, host the Bulls Monday then are in Edmonton and Fort McMurray the rest of next week.
“It was rocky a little bit early… but we’re going to clean it up defensively,” said Mavs coach Tom Vessella, who will give Owen Steele the start on the mound Friday against Brooks’ Jarrett Joyner. “We put up 11 hits, eight runs, you can’t be upset about that.”
