NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Mavericks second baseman Marshall Burke makes contact with a pitch in the Mavs' 10-5 win Sunday at Athletic Park over the Moose Jaw Miller Express.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
A war of rivals was held over the weekend at Athletic Park with the Medicine Hat Mavericks coming out with the advantage.
The Mavs won two of the three games they played against the Moose Jaw Miller Express, increasing the gap between the two teams in the playoff standings.
All three games featured comebacks, with the Mavs’ overcoming an eight-run deficit for a 10-9 win Friday. Moose Jaw fought off two Medicine Hat leads for a 14-11 win on Saturday and the Mavs finished the weekend with a four-run comeback, winning 10-5.
Medicine Hat is 6-3 in the season series, with the final regular season matchup Wednesday at Moose Jaw. If the WCBL playoffs started today, the second-place Mavs (24-15) would face the third-place Millers (21-18) for the third year in a row. Head coach Kevin Mitchell described the series win as a valuable one as the summer narrows towards the postseason.
“We’re more familiar with those guys than any other team in the league,” Mitchell said. “They have a lot of returners, we know how they play, it’s a familiar matchup. I also really like the matchup, I like what we have versus what they have. So there is some confidence there.
‘That’s not taking away from what their strengths are as a team. They can go and give it to us as well. But I like the matchup and being able to have what likely will be at some point a playoff preview, it’s a good thing.”
As the weekend wore on and both teams traded punches with comebacks, tensions rose and both teams raised competitive levels.
Second baseman Marshall Burke has enjoyed playing Moose Jaw all season and says the taste of a likely playoff series was exciting.
“This series with Moose Jaw, the competitiveness is top tier and that’s what you want,” Burke said. “That’s what gets you better, that’s why we play the game.”
The Mavs were able to chip away in Friday’s win, trailing 9-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning. They scored two runs in that inning, plated four in the seventh and took the lead with a three-run eighth inning.
It was a script that flipped on Saturday, with Medicine Hat scoring six runs in the first inning. Moose Jaw countered with a three-run third and scoring four runs in the fourth. Medicine Hat scored twice in the third to extend the lead that was ultimately tied in the fifth.
After the Mavs grabbed three runs in the bottom of the seventh for their second lead, Moose Jaw responded with three runs in both the eighth and ninth inning for the win.
That set up Sunday’s action, where Moose Jaw scored four runs in the first three innings for an early 4-0 lead. Medicine Hat countered in the bottom of the third with three runs and scored another three in the fourth for a 6-4 advantage.
The difference came in the sixth, when Moose Jaw scored a run to make it a one-run game, the Mavs scored three runs of their own and added a cherry on top with a run in the eighth for the 10-5 win.
After Saturday’s loss, Mitchell said his pitching wasn’t good enough and wanted more from his team. He saw what he needed Sunday and he says being able to push his team and have them respond positively is a sign of a good team.
“These guys also push each other and it’s in a healthy way,” Mitchell said. “There’s some internal competition that is a really good thing and they have responded well to adversity throughout this season. Even if that doesn’t always show in a win, the day after a really tough game, their character is shown to be to be very strong and it’s tight knit group.
“So to rebound Sunday the way that we did especially being down 4-0 early, they showed some maturity and kept their heads about them and started chipping away. That’s what it takes.”
The Mavs also weathered a storm Sunday of hitting into a triple play. In the seventh inning with runners on first and second, third baseman Blake Dale laid out a bunt attempt that hung in the air long enough for the Moose Jaw first baseman to catch it, starting an eventual triple play.
Mitchell says they were looking to expand the lead and stood by the bunt attempt. He credited relief pitcher Leo Woods for throwing a shut-down inning in the eight to swaths any Moose Jaw momentum from the defensive play.
The weekend series finished off a series of 10 games in 11 days, where they put up a 9-2 record. The Mavs had off days Monday and Tuesday before they head to Moose Jaw on Wednesday and to Regina to face the East division leading Red Sox on Thursday.
Mitchell says he likes the schedule and the opportunity they had for a bounce back after a tough loss like Saturday’s. He also says they have a pair of much needed days off.
“It’s been hot, I know some guys are banged up and I think these two days off are coming at a right time,” Mitchell said.
