NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Mavericks second basemen Kellan Williamson slides into third base ahead of the ball in the Mavericks 6-0 loss to the Okotoks Dawgs Wednesday night at Athletic Park.
“Baseball sucks sometimes.”
That was part of Medicine Hat Mavericks head coach Tyler Jeske’s post game message to his team after their 6-0 loss to the Okotoks Dawgs Wednesday night at Athletic Park.
“I haven’t been able to say this a lot but we just got beat,” Jeske said. “You tip your cap, you show up and we’re 0-0 again tomorrow and we keep moving forward.”
The loss marks the first time this WCBL season the Mavericks have been shutout let alone scored less than three runs in a game. The Mavs entered Wednesday’s contest with a three game winning streak where the Mavericks outscored their opponents 37-9 and out hit them 45-20.
The Dawgs doubled up Medicine Hat 12-6 in the hit totals Wednesday.
Jeske said getting shutout was going to happen with how hot the Mavs had been swinging the bats.
“Tip your cap to Okotoks, they’re a very good team,” Jeske said. “They have a lot of depth. There’s not a big drop off, even after we got their starter out of the game, it’s not a big drop off to the bullpen. They made some outstanding plays defensively and you go back through it, we barrelled quite a few balls. They didn’t fall and that’s baseball sometimes.”
Garrett Nicholson started the game on the mound for the Mavericks and he worked through three and two thirds innings. He had three strikeouts and was charged with only three of the six runs that the Dawgs scored.
Okotoks struck for three runs in the first inning with two outs and after a clean second frame, struck for two runs in the third and one in the fourth inning on a solo home run.
Isaiah Bartels took over on the mound to get the last out in the fourth inning. He pitched another two innings with two strikeouts.
First basemen Hunter Cooper was the Mavericks leader on offence with three hits, one being a double.
Kameron Richards took the ball in the seventh inning and worked two frames before Bryce Libke took over in the ninth and registered one strikeout.
The Mavericks(9-14) don’t have long to stew on the loss against the WCBL’s top ‘Dawgs’ as they’re back in action Thursday night in Brooks against the Bombers. They return home Friday when they host the Swift Current Broncos for a 7:05 p.m. Canada Day game.
Jeske said he looks at Wednesday’s loss as something the Mavericks can strive to achieve.
“That is the top club in the league right now and at the end of the year, that should be our goal.”
