The Moose Jaw Miller Express have seen their Western Canadian Baseball League season come to an end.
The Express dropped a 14-7 decision to the Medicine Hat Mavericks in the third and deciding game of the WCBL East Division Final on Sunday night at Ross Wells Park, giving Medicine Hat a two-games-to-one victory in the best-of-three series.
The contest was a microcosm of the Express' struggles with the Mavericks in the latter half of the season.
Despite a huge comeback after an early deficit, Moose Jaw couldn’t find a way to keep Medicine Hat’s relentless offence from putting up runs, and that led to the Mavericks answering every time the home team rallied.
It all started in the first inning, as the Mavericks’ Brody Gardner took the second pitch of the game over the left field fence for a home run. That set the stage for a five-run first inning, and the tone for the game.
Moose Jaw scrapped back into it with three runs in the bottom of the inning, and managed to tie things up 6-6 in the bottom of the third, but the very next inning saw a three-run home run off the bat of Andrew Savage to give the Mavericks a 9-6 lead.
After the Express got one back in the bottom of the fifth, Medicine Hat cracked double digits with a pair of runs in the sixth, and a two-run single by Tory Nelson keyed a three-run seventh to make it 14-7.
As the score would indicate, it was a rough night in general for the Moose Jaw pitching staff.
Matt Vasquez allowed five runs in the first and Zach Sigmon surrendered four runs on five hits over the next 3 ⅓. Julian Gonzalez shut things down for a 1 ⅓ innings, allowing a single hit, but Kellen Voggesser would give up two runs on four hits in the sixth before giving way Haldon Craig. He’d walk three and allow three runs over the next 1 ⅓ innings, and Cameron Dunn would finish things off, holding the Mavericks hitless over the final two innings.
Thomas Soto led Moose Jaw at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a pair of runs scored and walking twice. Julio Acosta was 2-for-4 with two runs and Bobby Pokorney 2-for-5 with a run scored.
The Mavericks now advance to the WCBL Final, where they’ll take on the Okotoks Dawgs beginning later this week.
