Medicine Hat Mavericks players in the home dugout in a 6-4 loss to the Okotoks Dawgs on Tuesday (Photo courtesy Scott Roblin)

By Scott Roblin

6-4 Final

Mavericks fall in extra innings to Okotoks for first loss of 2022

May 31, 2022 | 11:37 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The first taste of the WCBL’s new extra innings rules didn’t go the way of the Medicine Hat Mavericks on Tuesday, dropping their first game of the 2022 season.

The Mavericks saw a 3-1 lead disappear in the sixth inning against the Okotoks Dawgs at Athletic Park, before Okotoks opened up in the 10th inning to earn a 6-4 win on the road.

“You have the international rules, love them or hate them, they are what they are,” said Mavericks head coach Tyler Jeske. “That changed the dynamic a little bit.”

It was a game of missed opportunities for Medicine Hat, as they left runners in scoring position several times over the course of the game including a late bases loaded scenario with the score tied.

Medicine Hat trailed early after Okotoks first baseman McCoy Pearce hit a ball in the first inning over the head of Medicine Hat’s Kellan Williamson to cash in a run.

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The Mavericks answered back in the second, with infielder Hunter Boylan roping the team’s first home run of the season towards centre field for a three-run shot to give Medicine Hat a 3-1 lead.

“I just wanted to get a ball up the middle and shorten the ball so I could get some good bat speed on it,” said Boylan. “I found it and it was nice.”

After Mavericks pitcher Garrett Nicholson and the rest of the team retired 13 consecutive Dawgs batters, Okotoks finally broke through in the sixth inning.

Leadoff man Ryan Dousett got things started for the Dawgs with a solo home run, before Pearce racked up his second RBI of the night to tie the game at 3-3.

What followed were four consecutive innings of Mavericks being left on base and unable to score the tying run, including three on in the bottom of the eighth.

Okotoks’ pitchers combined for 10 strikeouts on Tuesday, a level Jeske said Medicine Hat will need to get to.

“This is the expectation if you want to win the league,” said Jeske. “A few too many strikeouts, I always look at it if we can get the leadoff guy on. Especially with runners in scoring position, strikeouts are always going to kill you.”

Tied at 3-3 after nine complete, the Mavericks and Dawgs went to extra innings with a new rule that changed the outlook of the game.

Both teams now begin the 10th inning with runners at first and second base, something the Dawgs capitalized on with three runs to jump out to a commanding 6-3 lead.

“This is the expectation if you want to win the league,” said Jeske. “A few too many strikeouts, I always look at it if we can get the leadoff guy on. Especially with runners in scoring position, strikeouts are always going to kill you.”

Medicine Hat added a run off a deep sacrifice-fly, but the gap was too wide to make up as the Mavericks suffered their first defeat of 2022.

“I thought it was kind of bad, but then if you reflect we get our chances too,” said Boylan on the international extra inning rules. “We have to capitalize on that and I think going into more games like this, we’ll have more experience and be able to definitely do some more damage.”

Nicholson went six innings for Medicine Hat with three earned runs given up on five hits with a trio of strikeouts, while Isaiah Bartels was handed the loss in his four innings of relief work.

The Mavericks are on the road in Brooks on Thursday night, before returning to Athletic Park on Friday to open a pair of games at home against Moose Jaw.