The Medicine Hat Mavericks celebrate a 12-11 victory over the visiting Okotoks Dawgs during their season and home opener Wednesday night at Athletic Park.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
The Medicine Hat Mavericks’ first game of the season went down to the wire Wednesday night as the team celebrated a 12-11 win against the visiting Okotoks Dawgs under the lights of Athletic Park and a home-opening crowd of more than 1,600.
What was a promising night to start the schedule could have have ended in disaster. The Mavs entered the top of the ninth with a hearty 10-6 over the three-time defending champs, however the Dawgs, as they can do, rallied for five runs and an 11-10 lead.
But the Mavericks would not be bested on this night – even though their own rally came in the strangest of ways and with a lot of help. A walk, a strikeout and a walk had the tying and winning runs aboard with second-baseman Carter Roth at the plate. A wild pitch advanced both runners into scoring position, and a subsequent wild pitch scored not only Yusei Uzawa but the trailing Tyler Vanneste as well, culminating in one of the weirdest walk-off victories fans will ever see.
Mavericks fans erupted as the dugout cleared to mob Vanneste, giving Medicine Hat a 1-0 record to start the season and, more importantly, a win against a bitter rival. After his first win with his new summer club, head coach Joanthon Thornhill spoke about the team’s poise facing adversity late in the match.
“Our guys came in and said, ‘No, we got this, we’ve been scoring runs all day,’ and I thought they did a great job of redeeming and helping their pitchers out,” said Thornhill. “A good first (game) and in game one, chemistry-wise. You can kind of see the boys, Johnny Vulcano, (Micah) Dvorak, Evan Morrision, coming to say, ‘Guys we got this, let’s go to work’ … so it was all around good work for game one.”
Thornhill says the team’s energy has been positive since training camp began last Sunday and plans to ride that energy throughout the season.
“That’s been the message since day one arriving here, is we’re going to go out and have fun. We’re going to get some losses and we’re going to punch them out a little bit. But how do you bite back? And those guys who are returners, they led the charge today and it showed.”
Hometown returning veteran Evan Morrison hit the game’s solo home run in the fifth inning, swinging momentum in the Mavs’ favour with a 5-3 lead. The home run is one of several on the horizon, says a motivated Morrision, who is looking for redemption after their first-round playoff exit last season.
“I can’t lie, I’ve been thinking about this day for a long time, just because last summer, the season didn’t go how I wanted it to go.” he said. “So I’ve been thinking about this day. I’m going to come out this year, I’m going to show them really the kind of ball player I am, because it wasn’t last summer.
“I’ve just been working, just been grinding and want to put on a show for the hometown crowd.”
Morrison says the Mavs are a gritty bunch ready to work hard and “grind out” wins.
“Nobody on this team gives up,” he said. “We’ve been here four days and it feels like a family already. These guys are a great group of guys, we all got each other’s backs (from) day one.”
Morrison is fresh off this collegiate season at Western Texas College, an NCAA Division I school, which wrapped up at the beginning of May.
Thursday night the Mavs played host to the visiting Moose Jaw Miller Express, though no result was in by press time.
Tonight the team travels to Swift Current to take on the 57’s. Saturday the Mavs will play host to the Lethbridge Bulls, and Sunday the 57’s will be in town before the team hits the road for a three-game trip that begins Monday night in Saskatoon.
