Herald photo by Ian Martens - Medicine Hat Mavericks' Nolan Rattai looks to turn a double play over Lethbridge Bulls' Dylan Borman during Western Canadian Baseball League playoff action Thursday night at Spitz Stadium.
nkuhl@lethbridgeherald.com@NKuhlHerald
It is just one game into the playoffs, but the Lethbridge Bulls are already only one game away from the second round.
And the Medicine Hat Mavericks are on the brink of elimination.
Bulls DH Kaleb Warden hit a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth off Mavs reliever Junior Pimentel as Lethbridge earned a 3-2 win in Game 1 of the best-of-three WCBL playoff series at Spitz Stadium Thursday night.
“In the two summers I’ve played up here and played against (Pimentel), I haven’t had any hits,” Warden said. “I was just trying to get the barrel to the ball and luckily I caught enough of it and put some elevation on it.”
“It couldn’t have come at a better time for us,” said Bulls manager Jesse Sawyer. “It was a great win.”
Bulls starting pitcher Logan Bexten went seven innings before giving way to reliever Tevin Hall, who earned the win, and Evan O’Toole, who earned the save.
Mavs starting pitcher Jaymon Cervantes gave up two walks and two hits in the first inning, but then at one point retired 12 straight batters before Riley Jepson hit a double down the left field line in the bottom of the fifth. Cervantes threw 106 pitches before handing off to Pimentel in the bottom of seven.
The Bulls opened the scoring in the bottom of the first on a bases-loaded single by catcher Roger Riley, scoring Jepson.
The Mavs evened the score at 1-1 in the top of the third inning when centre fielder Freddy Walker hit a single to left, scoring DH Taylor Wright who led off that inning with a double to right field.
The Bulls took back the lead in the bottom of the sixth when second baseman Ashton Roy had a lead off walk and scored on a sacrifice fly by centre fielder Robert Bostedt.
“We had opportunities but didn’t cash in on them,” said Mavs head coach Tom Vessella. “When you give up three runs in a game, you still think you’re going to be there to win it. It just didn’t go our way today.”
The Mavs threatened in the top of seven, but stranded two runners when Bexten struck out Walker to end the inning. Bexten was chased in the top of eight after a lead-off double by Collin Kligensmith, who then scored on an RBI single by Austin Sojka.
Game 2 of the series goes Friday night at Athletic Park in Medicine Hat. If necessary, Game 3 will be back in Lethbridge at Spitz Stadium at 7:05 p.m. Saturday.
“The focus is ‘we’ve got to win today,'” Vessella said. “We have to come after them. I don’t think we’ve played a game where it’s been easy against them.”
“We’re going to go out there and see if we can get it done (Friday),” Sawyer said. “We’ve just got to keep playing good baseball and minimize the mistakes.”
