Mavs swept by Sylvan Lake in two-game weekend set

By JAMES TUBB on July 11, 2023.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

The Medicine Hat Mavericks are in the dog days of summer.

The Mavs are coming off a three-loss weekend, losing 5-4 at Swift Current on Friday against the 57’s before dropping a two-game home set against the Sylvan Lake Gulls on Saturday and Sunday. Medicine Hat was outscored 31-14 in the two contests, losing 18-5 and 13-9.

Head coach Kevin Mitchell says there’s a reason baseball seasons are longer than most other sports.

“When you look at the big league level, they play 162 games for a reason because you can be going great for three weeks and then you can be going the wrong direction for three weeks,” Mitchell said. “In a 56-game schedule though, it feels like a big season and it is for these guys because we play every day. When things go sideways, it happens quick. But it’s not atypical for a baseball team to experience something like this.

“The true test is, how do we come out of this funk? Because we will, it’s inevitable. We have too much talent and there are too many guys pulling in the right direction for it to stay this way.”

The Mavs have won three of their last 10 games entering play Monday at Athletic Park against the Brooks Bombers. They are still looking for their first home win since June 26 and remain in third place of the WCBL’s East division with a 16-21 record, trailing the second place Regina Red Sox (17-19).

The Mavs not only have opportunities to get back in the win column this week but also a chance to get a bit of a break from playing baseball. They have off days Tuesday and Wednesday before hosting the last place Weyburn Beavers on Thursday and Friday. Saturday is the WCBL all-star game at Okotoks, which is an off-day for all but six of the Mavs’ representatives, before the entire team is off Sunday.

Mitchell says the message heading into the week has been to remain positive and capitalize on the games ahead.

“The guys are looking forward to another little break, we’ve played well against Brooks so far so mentally we’ll be ready to go,” Mitchell said. “We want to finish these stretches on a winning note.”

In Sunday’s loss, between walks and hit batters the Mavs put nine runners on base without allowing a hit, with eight of those runners scoring. That mixed with the amount of runs given up, was not a winning recipe for the Mavs weekend.

“The bottom line is, we can’t give up 31 runs in two games and expect to win either of them, unless you give up 30 of them in one of those games,” Mitchell said. It’s tough, we had nine free passes tonight and eight of them scored, that’s it right there-especially against a good team. You give up that many free passes, it’s going to bite you.”

The Mavs were led offensively in the loss by catcher Andrew Savage, who hit two home runs and tallied five RBIs on the afternoon. While he obviously wants those home runs to come in wins, Savage was happy to see his work come to fruition with his first two home runs of the season.

“The first one I didn’t even know it was going over, I thought it was going to be a wall scraper against the wind,” Savage said. “He gave me a fastball and I was just trying to get a good swing, get on base for the boys and get something going. The second one, I wasn’t trying to do too much either. I was at the plate with one out, runner on just trying to hit a sac fly. I caught it out front and it just happened to go.”

Monday’s game against the Bombers at Athletic Park was not complete by press time, visit medicinehatnews.com/sports for a full game story. The Mavs’ next action is Thursday when they open a two-game home set against the Weyburn Beavers.

16
-15