NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Mavericks third baseman Tyler Vanneste celebrates his three-run home run in the second inning of the Mavs' 25-6 win Thursday at Athletic Park over the Edmonton Prospects.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Mavericks had themselves quite the weekend primer.
The Mavs blew-out the Edmonton Prospects on Thursday, coming out on top 25-6 ahead of a three-game set this weekend against the Moose Jaw Miller Express.
Medicine Hat outhit Edmonton 24-10 and were led offensively by a pack of hitters. Third baseman Tyler Vanneste had six RBIs with three hits and three runs scored, first baseman Landon Mokris tallied four hits with two RBIs and two runs scored and outfielder Brady Bean had four RBIs and scored four times with a hit.
Vanneste says they enjoyed the video game-like numbers in the win and kept the foot on the pedal.
“It’s good to see everyone you know keep swinging it, dish it well, we kept it going the whole nine innings so that was promising,” Vanneste said. “Especially in those games, it gets hard late on but we stayed on them and kept our approach was good.”
Edmonton scored two runs in the first inning before the Mavs countered with eight runs in the bottom of the second frame. They piled on with three runs in the third, six tallies in the fourth and four more in the fifth inning. Medicine Hat rounded out the scoring with a four-run seventh inning.
The Mavs had four home runs on the night, Vanneste and Bean had three-run home runs, shortstop Blake Dale hit a two-run blast and Mokris had a solo home run.
Edmonton used seven pitchers on the evening, the last four to hit the mound were all position players. Head coach Kevin Mitchell said when the game gets to that point, the game has to be taken with a garin of salt.
His biggest takeaway form the bloated win, was the Mavs not letting Edmonton get back into the game and also scoring their first 11 runs with two outs.
“There was some fight and what we did really well was continue to add on and take them out of that fight, so that was great to see,” Mitchell said. “The first 11 runs being scored with two outs, I told the guys that is the best reason to never give an at bat away, to know that can happen at any time. That was really, really good to see.”
The Mavs did utilize their own position player on the mound with Jordan Phillips, who started the game on the bench due to illness, pitching the ninth inning.
The all-star outfielder used to pitch in college when he says he coaches didn’t think he could hit. Phillips made a decision a few weeks ago to start getting his arm into pitching shape and it paid off, recording three punch-outs in his outing.
Phillips was open to the idea of pitching in games again with the last being over two years ago. Mitchell says he likes the Houston, Tex. product as a middle of the order hitter more but will remember the outing.
“Pitching with a 19-run lead is a lot different than pitching with a two-run lead, so stay tuned for that one, but it was encouraging to see.,” Mitchell said. “He was able to fill it up, the stuff is there. He hadn’t pitched in a few years but at one point he went to college as a pitcher, so he can do it.
“I hope to not need him to be that guy. But if it develops into that, so be it, we’ll use what we have to.”
While the bloated win was nice on Thursday, the Mavs opened up an important set on Friday against Moose Jaw. They host the Miller Express for a three-game home stand this weekend that will likely have playoff implications.
Medicine Hat sits second in the East division with a 22-14 record and Moose Jaw is two games behind them at 20-16. Mitchell says they spoke postgame Thursday about not getting too high off the big win ahead of the weekend.
“They’re playing well also and there’s some some bad blood there to be sure, they’re going to come in ready to play and it’s going to be a battle,” Mitchell said. “This game will humble you real quick if you look past anybody. I don’t think we are doing that with Moose Jaw but after a night like tonight, I told them to keep their hitting boots on because we’re going to need it.”
Moose Jaw is at Athletic Park on Saturday for a 7:05 p.m. contest and a 2:05 p.m. game on Sunday.
