Mavericks pick up first win of 2023 WCBL season

By JAMES TUBB on June 1, 2023.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

A weight was lifted off the shoulders of the Medicine Hat Mavericks on Tuesday, they’re in the win column.

The Mavericks registered their first win of the 2023 Western Canadian Baseball League season, winning 13-7 in Weyburn against the Beavers. Medicine Hat hit the road coming off the heels of a winless opening weekend, dropping their first three contests.

Head coach Mark Goodman spoke with the News on the phone from Weyburn ahead of their rematch with the Beavers on Wednesday. He says even before the game started he could feel the win coming for the Mavericks.

“From the get go it was a different attitude, the boys were ready to get on one,” Goodman said. “I’ve talked about us getting on the road to start getting a winning streak and it started last night, and we have to continue it tonight. But it’s been fun, last night’s game was fun, we were pitching it, we were hitting it, we’re stealing bases.”

Goodman changed the order of the lineup and included the newest Maverick, outfielder Brent Cota from the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos. Third baseman Nathan Tarver and shortstop Johnny Vulcano each had two hits and three RBIs to lead Medicine Hat’s offence. Right fielder Brody Gardner added two hits, two RBIs, two runs scored and drew two walks in the win.

The Mavericks only had to use two pitchers in the win with Zac Robinson starting the contest and getting the win, registering two strikeouts in 5.1 innings pitched with five runs against. Tim Carlson took over in the sixth inning and struck out two more batters while only allowing two runs.

“The pitching is getting better,” Goodman said. “We’re starting to get ahead in counts and that’s a big deal. We had some lower pitch-count innings that really helped us get through only using two guys, which is huge.”

The win also marks the first for Goodman as a bench boss in the WCBL as he’s navigating his first season in the league. He says the focus now that the first win is in the rearview is to keep adding to the total.

“Let’s start trying to stack a few, we’re out here, we might as well do it,” Goodman said. “So let’s see if we can come back with at least two or three wins and see what we can get going, the boys are pretty excited. It felt like a weight was lifted off our shoulders, you can tell they were relieved that it finally happened. I’ve known all along we can do this, hopefully we can string a few together.”

Wednesday’s contest in Weyburn was not complete by time of press, visit medicinehatnews.com/sports for a full game story. The Mavericks head to Regina on Thursday to face the Red Sox for the first time since beating them 2-0 in their 2022 WCBL quarterfinals series. The club then returns to Medicine Hat on Friday to open a two-game home stand, facing the Swift Current 57’s on Friday before facing the Moose Jaw Miller Express on Saturday for the first time since dropping Game 3 of their semi-finals series in early August.

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