NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Mavericks left fielder Austin Cappas keeps his eye on the ball during an at bat in the Mavericks 6-5 loss to the Regina Red Sox at Athletic Park Tuesday night.
The Medicine Hat Mavericks could not make the needed adjustments Tuesday night.
After putting up four runs in the first four innings the Mavericks were kept at bay while the Regina Red Sox came back and scored six straight runs to beat Medicine Hat 6-5 at Athletic Park.
Regina pitcher Braden Houston picked up the win with a complete game shutout while striking out nine Medicine Hat batters.
Mavericks head coach Tyler Jeske gave credit to the Regina pitcher but said the loss is a tough one to swallow.
“…I go back through and we’re swinging it well early in the game and then their pitcher started mixing it up and pitching backwards and we struggled to make an adjustment and the offence kind of went flat,” Jeske said. “…What it comes down to me is, it’s not the bullpen, it wasn’t pitching, it was our it was our defence and our offence.”
Medicine Hat jumped on the board in the first frame with a solo home run from right fielder David Dell who saw eight pitches before he hit his first home run of the season. The Mavericks struck again when third basemen Nate Ewing knocked in a run with an RBI single.
They added to their lead in the fourth on an RBI double from left fielder Austin Cappas that was followed up with an RBI single from first basemen Hunter Boylan five pitches later.
Mavericks starter Garrett Nicholson was going strong through five innings but ran into trouble in the sixth when a Mavs error allowed a runner on base that rolled into the Red Sx scoring three runs in the frame.
Nicholson handed the ball to Isaiah Bartels after striking out eight batters over five and a third innings of work. Bartels pitched an inning and a third before Kam Richards took over on the mound in the eighth with the game tied at 4-4 after the Red Sox scored in the seventh.
Ewing switched from third base to pitcher in the ninth after Regina hit a double that put them ahead 5-4. The pitching change created a number of moves for the Mavericks, with centre fielder Braden DeSonia shifting to third base, Dell moving to centre field, Boylan heading into the outfield and designated hitter Hunter Cooper patrolling first base.
Ewing picked up a strikeout in his inning of work but the Red Sox managed another run as they carried a 6-5 lead into the bottom of the ninth.
Medicine Hat flashed some life when Cooper hit his first home run of the season and first of his collegiate career, to bring the Mavs within one.
Cooper said it’s bitter sweet getting that home run in a loss but said he was looking forward to his post game phone call with his dad Chris to talk about it.
“He was really pushing for me to hit out here because he’s like, ‘you’re gonna get that first home run, you’re gonna get it,'” Cooper said,. “So that’ll be pretty fun to get to talk to him about it and just the whole family.”
The Mavs were not able to scratch across anymore runs in the ninth as Richards was tabbed with the 6-5 loss on the mound.
Cooper said the message after the loss was one they had heard for a lot of the season, they took their foot of the gas and let Regina creep back into the game. He said they need to start putting teams away earlier to prevent the comebacks.
“We need to jump ahead and put teams away, we’re up 4-0, we have five or six hits we need to keep swinging and keep putting up runs just put them away, put the game out of reach,” Cooper said. “Which we’ve done and when we do that, you know we end up winning the game. Just being able to compound on the hits that we have and get a lead off base runner even if we’re up 5-0, that’s really important to get him to score.”
The Mavericks(11-17) are back in action against Regina Wednesday night at Athletic Park for a 7:05 p.m. contest.
