Truman Bartman on July 24th themavericks.ca
After obtaining an 8-4 lead midway through Tuesday’s game, the Mavericks did not finish the job against the Regina Red Sox.
The Mavericks came out swinging in the bottom of the first, kicking home four runs, which started with a Jordan Phillips double. Gardner, Dvorak, Quick, and Mokris would all earn RBIs.
Red Sox pitcher Kade Douglas looked shaky, and the Mavericks capitalized on his overuse of the fastball in the first.
Regina responded instantly at the top of the second, with Diego Aragon doubling. Danny Gonzalez would follow his approach and hit a double of his own to bring in the Red Sox’s first run. Justin Carinci hit a single in centre to bring in the second run of the inning, cutting the lead in half.
The game slowed down as the innings went by, with the Mavericks chipping away and adding to their lead run by run.
The Mavs saw two players go yard in this one, the first one being Johnny Vulcano, who drove a flyer into left centre to just about the same spot where he hit his last home run at Athletic Park.
Michael Quick, who was named player of the game for the Mavericks after going 3 for 5, hit his first home run in Medicine Hat. He needed all 365 feet to clear the wall, and his homer hopped off of the top of the wall to get by.
With an 8-4 lead entering the top of the eighth inning, he seemed poised to take a step in the standings for the Red Sox.
Enter a two-inning smack from the Red Sox’s bats. Diego Aragon would reach base with a single off of Jack Novak, and Novak would issue a free pass to Silas Butler.
After a short mound meeting, coach Kevin Mitchell elected to keep Novak in the game. The next batter he faced (Danny Gonzalez) clapped a double into right field, which cleared the bases.
That would ultimately chase Jack Novak from the game and usher Josh Landry into it.
The Red Sox would add one more run, making it a one-run ball game heading into the 9th.
If you thought the top 8 was impressive from the Sox, you wouldn’t believe they would put together in the 9th.
Five runs came through, and once again, it all started with rallyman Diego Aragon getting on base. Some solid contact hitting mixed with a few defensive relapses caused the Mavericks to not only lose to the lead but also go down by 4 runs. Tyler Fortin held things together in the 9th as the Mavericks fell, unlike the fish flies that covered the night sky above.
The moral of the story is that the Mavericks are likely going to fall short of the one seed in the East and need to get better at defending leads late in games. Especially when it comes to playing stiff competition like the Regina Red Sox, who proved their worth last night by winning 12-8.