NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN - Kayden Hleucka of the Medicine Hat Moose Monarchs slides safely into third base during his team's AA American Legion Baseball game against the Billings Royals at Jeffries Park on Wednesday.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
The Medicine Hat Moose Monarchs had a comeback cut short by a few costly miscues on Wednesday afternoon at Jeffries Field.
After splitting a doubleheader with the Billings Royals Tuesday in Medicine Hat, the Monarchs fell 10-3 to drop Wednesday’s rubber match following a six-run seventh inning from the visitors – a game head coach Skyler Stromsmoe says was well within their grasp.
“That’s a very beatable team,” said Stromsmoe, whose Monarchs fell to 1-4 in AA American Legion Baseball play with the loss. “We can’t afford to give them free bases, to give them free outs. At the batter’s box too, we can’t throw at-bats away. If we do that, we’re winning these games. Just a few miscues out there, whether it be an error or a mental mistake, that’s hurting us and costing us the game.”
After falling into a four-run hole in the fifth, the Monarchs responded with two runs in the home half of the frame and another in the sixth. While it narrowed the gap to one entering the seventh inning, the Royals managed to capitalize on a leadoff error and strike for six unearned runs to push the game out of reach.
“We’ve just got to keep the offence going, clutch up in a few moments,” said Monarchs outfielder Joel Herron. “There’s lots of energy in the dressing room and we’ll try to keep that up and play strong.”
Relief pitcher Tory Nelson did all he could to keep the door open for his Monarchs, entering in the fifth with two outs and a pair of runners in scoring position, then getting the strikeout to escape the inning and putting up a clean sixth before an error broke his rhythm in the seventh.
“We have a miscue at third base and all those runs are unearned that last inning because of that,” said Stromsmoe. “(Nelson’s) going to attack hitters, throw strikes. They ended up finding some balls there but we should have come through before then.”
Starter Reese Whelen was left with the loss after allowing four runs on seven hits through 4 2/3 innings.
Herron and Connor Drever were the lone Monarchs to register a pair of base hits in the setback, while Kayden Hleucka and Drew Niwa both finished with one hit and 1 RBI and Brandon Hauck was 1-for-1 with a walk.
The Monarchs head to Lethbridge for the Mary Oikawa Memorial Tournament this weekend.
