NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Mavericks right fielder David Dell celebrates his fourth inning hit in the Mavericks Friday night contest against the Regina Red Sox. The Mavericks beat Regina 8-1 at Athletic Park.
The Medicine Hat Mavericks were firing on all cylinders Friday night.
The Mavericks scored seven unanswered runs to beat the Regina Red Sox 8-1 at Athletic Park and snap their four game losing streak.
Mavericks pitcher Mathew Krall, who picked up the win on the mound with two strikeouts and one run allowed, said the win is like a breath of fresh air.
“Energy is really up, everyone’s hyped up, it’s really good to be back,” Krall said. “Hopefully we turn this one win into a winning streak.”
Medicine Hat head coach Tyler Jeske said winning is always a good feeling and he looks at Friday’s victory as something the team can build off of.
“Obviously we dug ourselves a little bit of a hole here early, you look at the standings, and we’re chasing teams,” Jeske said. “You never want to be but the message to guys today was, you don’t have to play with the pressure of the standings… We can go out, play free and get back to doing our game.”
The Mavericks opened the scoring Friday in the bottom of the first inning when second basemen Kellan Williamson scored from third base on a passed ball. Williamson scored four of the Mavericks eight runs Friday and he attributed his offensive prowl to playing the game hard.
“It really shows when I run the bases, anything hit hard and I’m trying to score every time,” Williamson said. “Doing the little things for my teammates, especially when you’re losing a lot. On the losing streak you have to play even harder so that’s what I’m trying to do, don’t take anything for granted and try to get across.”
The Red Sox challenged in the third with the bases loaded but were limited to one run on a bloop single. The Mavericks answered back in the bottom of the frame with a solo home run from centre fielder Braden DeSonia that brought the crowd of 1,039 to their feet and a RBI single from first basemen Hunter Cooper.
Krall sad he gained confidence from limiting Regina to one run with the bases loaded but was not happy it got to that point.
“I put myself there, they shouldn’t have scored that one run,” Krall said. “I walked the first two batters, they got a bloop hit through the gap off the changeup. It’s baseball, it happens, just have to stop the freebies and control what I can control.”
Medicine Hat did not allow another run as Garrett Nicholson took over on the mound in the sixth inning and threw three shutout innings with three strikeouts before handing the ball to Nathan Stark in the ninth to close the game.
The Mavericks scored five runs in four innings on an error by the Regina shortstop in the fifth, a two RBI double from designated hitter Adrian Salazar in the sixth, RBI single from catcher Deon Reese in the seventh and an RBI single in the eighth from shortstop Nathan Ade.
Medicine Hat picked up the win while notching 15 hits and without recording an error on the field. Jeske said it felt fantastic to have an all around win.
“You can go back through our previous wins and still be really nit-picky about areas where something didn’t go well, but we still got the win,” Jeske said. “Tonight was the first time where all three cylinders were clicking and that’s the standard of expectation. That’s what we’re building towards and we’ll be doing on a nightly basis.”
The Mavericks are back in action Saturday as they’ll look to win beat the Regina Red Sox for the second straight game. That contest at Athletic Park gets underway at 7:05 p.m.
