NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Mavericks centre fielder Braden DeSonia throws the ball in after making a catch in the Mavericks 7-2 loss at Athletic Park against the Moose Jaw Miller Express in Game 2 of their East division finals series.
For the first time in the 2022 WCBL playoffs, the Medicine Hat Mavericks face elimination.
The Mavericks fell 7-2 Saturday night in Game 2 of the East division finals against the Moose Jaw Miller Express at Athletic Park. They will head to Moose Jaw Sunday for a winner-takes-all Game 3 that gets underway at 7:05 p.m.
Mavericks head coach Tyler Jeske tipped his cap to the Miller Express and said the Mavs missed on their opportunities Saturday.
“Moose Jaw is a very talented team, there’s a reason they finished, where they finished in the standings in the regular season,” Jeske said. “We had opportunities to put some runs up early that we missed out on and the end of the day, that’s what playoff baseball is. You only have a finite number of opportunities to capitalize and they capitalized on more than we did.”
The Mavericks opened the scoring with a two run home run in the bottom of the third inning from designated hitter Hunter Cooper.
Cooper said it felt good to grab momentum early with the home run and make up for his first at bat.
“It was a good momentum shift there, we’re tied 0-0 and I was pretty upset with myself about the at bat before I had runners in scoring position with two outs and I popped out to third base,” Cooper said. “Being able to capitalize on their error and score a couple of runs is big and to do it in that fashion in front of a ton of fans here, there’s nothing like it.”
That was the Mavericks lone offence of the game as Moose Jaw ran off seven answered for the victory.
Isaiah Bartels got the start for the Mavericks and pitched four innings with two strikeouts. Zac Robinson took over to start the fifth inning and pitched the rest of the game with two strikeouts of his own.
When the series shifts to Moose Jaw for Game 3 on Sunday, the Mavericks and Miller Express will be playing to punch their ticket to the WCBL finals against the Okotoks Dawgs.
Cooper was one of five Mavericks in 2019, who lost in the West finals to the Lethbridge Bulls. He said there is nothing like playing in an elimination game.
“We know what kind of team we are and we know when we put everything together we’re really good team and we can beat them, we showed it last night and we showed glimpses of it tonight,” Cooper said. “Going into the game we need to not put so much pressure on ourselves, Tyler said today felt like there’s a lot of pressure on us today even though we’re the ones up a game. We just need to go out there and you play our game, not worry too much about the results and try to win each inning and each at bat.
“The pressure is still on them,” Jekse said
“They have to beat us twice in a row, we only have to win one. We went 0-1, tomorrow’s a new day, we have the opportunity to go win another baseball game. At the end of the day, whatever happens happens; if I said back in middle to end of July that the Mavericks would be one game away from playing in the WCBL championship series I would say, sounds a little far fetched but it sounds cool. The reality is, we get to go play baseball tomorrow, the umpire is going to say play ball and we’re going to play 27 outs and the scoreboard will dictate who moves on”
Both Jeske and Cooper thanked the 1,610 fans in attendance Saturday night for what could be the Mavericks last game at Athletic Park in 2022. Cooper said he doesn’t fully remember what the crowd was like in 2019 but said he’s enjoyed having the city behind them this season.
He said it’s been great having the city and the 1,610 fans in attendance Saturday night behind them.
“Especially after a tough tough regular season, for us to pull out of the first round and get that sweep and win the first game yesterday, having having all the people here is super fun,” Cooper said. “It’s a great atmosphere and I enjoyed it a lot. It’s cool when the when the crowds cheering for you.”
“It’s going to be a lot more fun tomorrow to put them away on their home turf when they have all their fans cheering for them,” Cooper said.
