NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Mavericks first basemen Tory Nelson celebrates his RBI double in the Mavericks 11-7 win in Regina Monday night against the Red Sox to take a 1-0 lead in their semi-final series.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Mavericks were all business Monday night in Regina.
The Mavericks scored early and beat the Red Sox 11-7 in Game 1 of their best-of-three East Division semifinal series to kick off the WCBL playoffs.
They brought the 1-0 lead back to Medicine Hat and Athletic Park on Tuesday for their first home playoff contests since 2019 and a chance to sweep the Red Sox and take the series win.
Mavericks head coach Tyler Jeske said he was happy with the win but cautioned that their job was not done. He said their win started on the mound and grew from there.
“It wasn’t a bloated win but it was one where our pitching staff was outstanding,” Jeske said. “Gerrit Erickson in relief finished it out, but it really started with Garrett Nicholson. He threw the ball as well as he had all year and you take out the one inning and he was cruising. I was sitting there thinking, ‘Oh boy, I’m going to have to make a tough decision here.’ I’ve talked about the depth, I’ve talked about our resiliency, I think that’s really what it comes down to, we’re going to utilize our depth and we’re going to be resilient.”
The Mavericks were on the board first with two runs in the first inning to jump ahead 2-0.
Nicholson held Regina at bay through four innings with four strikeouts before the Red Sox bats awoke in the fifth. Regina scored four runs in the fifth to end Nicholson’s night at 4.2 innings. Erickson then took over on the mound and got out of the inning.
Erickson, getting the final out of the fifth frame, was credited with the win in his 4.1 innings pithed with two strikeouts.
Erickson said how the Mavericks came together for the victory showed him how much they want to win it all.
“It shows that everyone’s in and everyone cares, we’re all locked in,” Erickson said. “We all came here for a reason and that was to win a championship. We’ll take the momentum we got from tonight and keep going out the next day. This thing isn’t over yet.”
The Mavericks put up a six spot on Regina in the seventh inning to jump ahead 11-4. First baseman Tory Nelson hit an RBI single and left fielder Christian Rush had a 2-RBI single to start the inning off before the Mavericks capitalized on three straight bases-loaded walks for the bloated lead.
Both Rush and Nelson had three RBIs each in the win as the Mavericks two offensive leaders.
“I’m just trying to do what I can do to help the team win and I think that’s what all the guys are doing,” Nelson said. “We’re just going on trying to have team at-bats, not be selfish and just help the guy beside you.”
As the series shifted to Athletic Park, Nelson, one of five Medicine Hat products on the Mavericks, was excited at the idea of playoff baseball at the park he grew up attending.
“I’ve grown up watching playoff baseball there and the atmosphere is different as a regular season game and playoff baseball is different,” Nelson said. “I’m excited for the fans, I think it’s going to be really good game and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Jeske, who has thanked the Mavericks fans all season for the atmosphere and support, said he was looking forward to the opportunity to bring the post-season back to the Hat and its fans.
Jeske was complimentary of Nelson, who has shifted around roles and around the diamond this season, finding himself at first base come the playoffs.
“Tory Nelson is a Swiss army knife, he’s been willing and able to do anything,” Jeske said. “He’s a tough out, he grinds out at bats and he was absolutely lethal with runners in scoring position and two outs. That’s where you put up the big innings and separate yourself, give yourself that cushion. He was outstanding.”
Nelson said if the team’s pitching keeps doing what its doing, they play clean defence and the offence keeps rolling, they’ll be in good hands. He was happy with his team’s resiliency throughout the Game 1 win.
“We’ve been through a lot this year, it was good to see that we are resilient and keep going and don’t take our foot off the gas pedal, which is what playoff baseball is all about,” Nelson said.
Tuesday’s Game 2 did not finish by time of press. Visit medicinehatnews.com/sports for a full story on the game.
A Mavericks win in that game would set up a trip to the East final against either the Moose Jaw Miller Express or Swift Current 57s. Moose Jaw won Game 1 of that series 9-2. A loss would send the Mavericks back to Regina Wednesday for a winner-take-all Game 3.
