By Mitch Bach

WCBL Baseball

Bulls solve Mavs hitting, win 5-4

Jul 30, 2019 | 9:49 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB — Home field advantage won’t come easy in the West Division.

The Lethbridge Bulls held off a late charge by the Medicine Hat Mavericks to win 5-4 on Tuesday night, pushing them into a tie for second place in the West.

Both teams are now 10.5 games back of Okotoks, fighting for the second and final home-field slot in the first round of the post-season. However, the Mavericks have two games in hand as they head into their final week of play.

In what could be a preview of the first round, the low scoring affair saw both teams produce multi-run leads through the match.

Medicine Hat took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the fourth, which was quickly erased with five runs over a three-inning span by Lethbridge.

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Trailing 5-2 in the seventh, Mavericks infielder Tito Jones scored on a double to right field from Freddy Walker, cutting the deficit to two.

Nolan Rattai inched the Mavericks closer, scoring on an error by the Bulls first baseman in the eighth, but Lethbridge closed out the top half of the ninth with three quick outs.

Medicine Hat’s bats continued to fire, with Austin Sojka, Collin Klingensmith, Taylor Wright, and Jones each collecting at least two hits.

Mavericks starter Derek Eubanks took the loss lasting 4.1 innings and surrendering four earned runs off five hits.

Logan Bexten of the Bulls earned his fourth victory of the season, and Evan O’Toole took the save with three strike-outs to end the match.

The loss snaps the Mavericks five-game winning streak. It’s also a bounce-back for the Bulls, having lost in Okotoks the previous night.

These two teams will collide twice more before the season’s end — a home-and-home series beginning in Medicine Hat on Aug. 4 before heading west to Spitz Stadium on Aug. 5.