NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Mavericks pitcher Edrian Rangel celebrates recording the final out of an inning in the Mavs 8-3 win Saturday at Athletic Park against the Weyburn Beavers.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Mavericks are not the same team they were 23 days and 15 games ago.
On July 12, two days removed from losing 9-4 against the Brooks Bombers, the Mavs had a 16-22 record, had lost 10 of their past 14 games and hadn’t won at Athletic Park in almost a month and were sitting third in the East division.
Since then, the Mavs have gotten hot and haven’t looked back.
Ever since that stretch in the middle of July, the Mavs have won 12 of their last 15 games, including a victory over the WCBL leading Okotoks Dawgs, they’ve clinched at least a .500 record on the season sitting at 28-25 entering play Thursday and have secured home field advantage in the first round of the WCBL playoffs where they’ll face the Red Sox.
Head coach Kevin Mitchell says it’s a feeling of satisfaction reflecting on their last 15 games and seeing how his team has turned into the group he knew they could be.
“When we’re playing our brand of baseball we’re tough to contend with and it’s everybody doing their part,” Mitchell said. “It’s throwing a lot of strikes, our pitchers have been great. What we did well, last night specifically, there were a few innings defensively that could have gotten away from us and we were able to minimize them. We can live with ones and twos, it’s the six spots that we’ve been able to put up on other teams that are back breakers and we have not given up those crooked innings the last month. That’s a big part of it.”
The Mavs won 8-6 Wednesday night at Moose Jaw against the Miller Express. It marked their second straight comeback against the Miller Express, having overcome a five-run deficit Tuesday in a 10-5 win. The win was also their fifth in a row entering the final stretch of their season, three games all at Athletic Park.
The Mavs hosted the Lethbridge Bulls on Thursday before they open a two-game set against the Red Sox starting tonight and wrapping up the season Saturday.
Mitchell says he sees a buy-in from the team that has slowly developed throughout the season but has taken off as of late.
“They’ve fully bought into my philosophy as a coach, they’ve bought into their teammates, they trust each other and that’s a beautiful thing when that happens on any kind of team,” MItchell said. “It’s a confidence and it’s a belief in yourself, a belief in the teammates knowing that the sum of this team is greater than its individual parts.”
As they head into the final stretch of games, Mitchell says they have three goals beyond winning against the Bulls and Red Sox, set the tone, line up the pitching and stay healthy.
“I told the guys after Wednesday’s game, let’s just keep the switch turned on the rest of the way, it’s a lot easier to stay in this mode than it is to pull off the gas a little bit and then try and turn it back on for the playoffs,” Mitchell said.
Reflecting on their first 53 games, catcher Dominic VanDoorne feels he blinked and the regular season is almost over. He’s looking forward to this last stretch at home and for the Mavs to gear up for the playoffs.
“The excitement is coming back, that same feeling I had when I got in here, that feeling is definitely coming back,” VanDoorne said. “Every day has been so great, I couldn’t complain about a single day I’ve had here. It’s sad that it’s ending but hopefully we end on a high note.
“This stretch couldn’t be any better, especially with us playing Regina who we’re going to play in the first round. So it’s nice to get comfortable in front of the home crowd and hopefully get them even fired up, more so than us because we’re already fired up. Let’s get the home fans fired up for this playoffs.”
Mitchell is interested to see how his team utilizes their five-day stay at home, with Sunday an off day and Monday set for the first game of the playoffs. He’s looking for his group to keep situational hitting, throwing strikes and playing solid defence. Mitchell says he’s glad they can end their regular season at Athletic Park and tee up the playoffs while doing so.
Thursday’s game was not complete by press time, visit medicinehatnews.com/sports for a full game story.
