NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
The Medicine Hat Mavericks embrace one another in Moose Jaw after losing Game 3 5-1 Sunday night against the Miller Express to fall in the WCBL East division finals.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Mavericks fell just short of the 2022 WCBL final.
After opening their East Division final against the Moose Jaw Miller Express with a 2-1 win Friday night in Moose Jaw, the Mavericks dropped two straight: losing 7-1 Saturday at Athletic Park and 5-1 Sunday back in Moose Jaw in the decisive Game 3 to get eliminated from the playoffs.
The Mavericks held a 1-0 lead through five and a half innings Sunday before Moose Jaw tied the game in the bottom of the sixth. The Millers took their lead an inning later, as they put up four runs in the seventh.
Head coach Tyler Jeske said they knew it was going to be a tough matchup entering the series and it came down to Moose Jaw capitalizing on opportunities on both sides of the ball, and the Mavericks not.
“You go back to where our strikeouts didn’t have a chance to turn into that blooper and go back through it, you just have to tip your cap,” Jeske said. “They they took advantage of opportunities, they battled, they’re just a quality ball club.
The Mavericks, who finished the playoffs with a record of 3-3 and a cumulative record of 21-41, handed Moose Jaw their only loss in the first two rounds of the WCBL playoffs. Moose Jaw will face the Okotoks Dawgs in the final that gets underway tonight.
The Mavericks entered the playoffs with the lowest seeding after finishing the regular season 18-38. They swept their East Division semifinal series against the first-place Regina Red Sox, winning Games 1 and 2. Sunday’s loss marked two straight playoffs the Mavericks have bowed out in the semifinals. The Mavericks lost in the West Division final to the Lethbridge Bulls in 2019.
Mavericks pitcher Ethan Bromley said he was proud of how the Mavs performed in the playoffs and outplayed their regular season record.
“Obviously our record wasn’t amazing but the whole time through I still thought we were really a great ball club. The standings or our record didn’t really display how talented we really were,” Bromley said. “It felt nice to really get the pieces kind of connected for when it really mattered.”
A big piece of the Mavericks success throughout the playoffs was the flexibility of their players and roles. Whether it was players shifting around the diamond to new positions to fill holes or pitchers handing the ball off to another arm sooner than usual.
Jeske said the buy-in from the players on that plan showed a lot about them prioritizing team over personal results.
“Each guy has their own motivation to come play summer collegiate baseball and the team concept is technically a tough thing to develop. Baseball is an inherently selfish game to begin with, from hitting and pitching perspective,” Jeske said. “The biggest thing I tried to do was always explained the why, in the logic, this is why I’m thinking this.
“Even from being a player’s coach perspective, I would definitely self-identify as a player’s coach. It’s not being a player’s coach to make them happy and cater to their needs as much as it is to make them involved in the decision and give them some ownership and allow them to provide their feedback, their thoughts. Then ultimately, I can make the decision. But it was about giving them some ownership and a stake in how this whole thing went.”
Bromley said he is going to miss his Mavericks teammates and said it didn’t kick in until after their final game was over how hard it was going to be to leave.
“You’re trying to digest the loss but the real hard part about losing is not being able to be on the field with these guys one last time,” Bromley said. “Obviously we wanted to get a little bit further but it makes it challenging because you know you won’t be able to hang out the same way with your buddies. But in two months, it’s hard to make relationships and we found a way to kind of connect with everyone. It felt like we jelled really well for just two or three months.”
