NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
Medicine Hat Mavericks third basemanm Austin Sojka throws to first baseman Sal Rodriguez during a Western Canadian Baseball League game against the Brooks Bombers on Wednesday, June 12, 2019 at Athletic Park.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
Jarrett Joyner came ready to duel on Wednesday night at Athletic Park.
The Brooks Bombers starting arm kept Medicine Hat’s offence restrained into the later innings while his bats steadily chipped away at Mavericks starter Brandon Ponticelli en route to a 10-5 victory.
“Jarrett was outstanding today,” said Brooks head coach Kyle MacKinnon, whose Bombers improved to 3-10 on the Western Canadian Baseball League season with their second straight win. “That’s kind of what we’ve needed throughout the year. We jumped out the other day against Lethbridge with a good start and we’ve finally got most of our guys here so it’s starting to roll.”
Joyner collected the win after holding Medicine Hat to three runs on five hits through six-plus innings of work, while Ponticelli was dealt the loss after allowing seven runs on eight hits through 6 1/3. Medicine Hat fell to an even 6-6 with the setback, their second in as many nights.
“He wasn’t as sharp today as we expect him to be and I think he also expects himself to be, but he went deeper into the game and we were close,” Mavericks head coach Tom Vessella said of Ponicelli. “Overall as a club we’ve just got to get better, simply put.”
The Bombers took an early 2-0 lead when Carter Troncin and McCoy Pearce struck for back-to-back RBI singles in the third.
Medicine Hat pushed back when third baseman Austin Sojka sent a solo shot over the right-centre field fence to lead off the bottom of the fourth, but Brooks responded with a two-run bomb to left off the bat of Pearce in the fifth.
“He’s a scary hitter,” MacKinnon said of Pearce, who finished with 3 RBI. “His name is starting to get around the league a little bit so guys are pitching him a little bit differently, but he made a nice adjustment today.”
Medicine Hat was poised to do some damage in the sixth after juicing the bases with two down, but Cameron Pope stuck out looking to end the inning.
Brooks tacked on two more in the seventh on doubles from Pearce and John McIntyre. The extra-base knocks put an end to Ponticelli’s night, but things continued to unravel following the starter’s departure, as Hunter Cooper took the hill and walked in another two runs – one charged to Ponticelli – then Dylan Sund entered and walked in two more before finally shutting down the frame.
“We can’t be giving up free bases,” said Vessella. “You take away half of those and it’s a whole different baseball game. We’ve got to get better overall – I’ve got to do a better job managing, we’ve got to do a better job throwing more strikes and we’ve got to do a better job of getting runners in early.”
Medicine Hat finally chased Joyner from the mound on back-to-back walks in the seventh before doing a bit of damage on reliever Sean Rydell. First Sojka drove in one on an RBI single, then Colton Wright plated two more on a double down the left field line and Nolan Rattai added another on a sac fly to cut the lead in half – but it was all the offence Medicine Hat would muster on the night.
“It’s little fixes to build the big picture,” said Wright. “Our hitters, myself included, haven’t been doing the best right now. Guys have got to step up. It was good to see guys step up with some big hits there.”
The Mavericks hit the road to Weyburn for a three-game series with the Beavers (10-2) staring tonight.
