NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Mavericks catcher Michael Quick reaches out to make a tag at home plate in the Mavs' 6-4 loss Tuesday at Athletic Park to the Sylvan Lake Gulls.
The Medicine Hat Mavericks jumped ahead early but couldn’t close the deal Tuesday night.
The Mavs scored early, with three runs in the first inning but were outscored the rest of the game, falling 6-4 to the Sylvan Lake Gulls at Athletic Park. Medicine Hat came into the contest off a 16-10 win Monday night over the Weyburn Beavers.
Head coach Kevin Mitchell tipped his cap to Sylvan Lake in the loss.
“They’re a good ball club, we controlled the game for seven innings, we had five hits in the first inning and six the rest of the game,” Mitchell said. “You have to add on, We talk about it all the time. They pitched us well, we hit into a few double play balls and like a good ball club does, they stayed in the game long enough to put some pressure on and they got the better of us tonight.”
The Mavs three-run, five-hit first inning was led by an RBI single from Jordan Phillips. They added to the lead with a two-run double from Michael Quick.
Both teams were held off the board into the seventh inning when the Gulls took the lead.
With runners on the corners and one out, the Gulls hit an RBI single to get on the board and end starter Jack Novak’s night on the mound. Adam Golby took over and got the second out of the inning. The Mavs appeared to get the third out on a ground out that was called back due to catchers interference and thus loaded the bases.
The next batter took advantage, with Sylvan Lake scoring two runs on a single to centre field to make it a 3-3 tie. They grabbed the lead on a single back to centre field and would have scored twice but Brody Gardner threw out the second runner at home to limit the Gulls to a 4-3 lead.
Novak finished his ninth with 6.1 innings pitched, getting charged with the three runs against on three hits, two walks and seven strikeouts.
Medicine Hat responded in the bottom of the seventh, with a sacrifice hit from Gardner scoring Marshall Burke from third after he hit a one-out triple, making it a 4-4 tie game.
Sylvan Lake regained a lead with a two-run home run in the top of the eighth inning, putting them ahead 6-4.
Josh Landry took over on the mound in the ninth, ending Golby’s night at 1.2 innings with three runs against on five hits with two strikeouts. Landry threw an almost clean ninth, allowing one base runner on a walk while recording three strikeouts.
The Mavs went three up, three down in the bottom of the ninth, ultimately falling to the Gulls for the second time this season. Mitchell says they didn’t get complacent offensively after the first inning but says they got beat by double plays.
“We had traffic every inning and when you hit into double play ball and then another one the next inning, another one the next inning, that’s deflating,” Mitchell said. “It didn’t feel like complacency to me, it more so felt, if anything, like a lack of adjustment. But I thought their pitcher was was pretty good. He had a stinker and a cutter mix that he was able to put wherever he wanted to and it’s tough to deal with that.”
Medicine Hat (16-13) is off Wednesday before they head to Saskatoon for the first of a five-game road trip, starting with a two-game set Thursday and Friday against the Berries.
