Beavers oust Bulls to split weekend series

By Lethbridge Herald on July 11, 2022.

Herald photo by JUSTIN SEWARD Lethbridge Bulls Kalem Haney tries to turn a double play against the Weyburn Beavers on Saturday night at Spitz Stadium.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbride Bulls were outslugged as the team lost 10-7 to the Weyburn Beavers on Saturday night at Spitz Stadium to split the two games series.

The Beavers had 10 runs on 16 hits and the Bulls had seven runs on 13 hits.

“They just out hit us and that’s kind of all there is to it,” said Bulls head coach Chance Wheatley.

“We’ve had a good stretch of games here and had some bullpen (injuries) and it’s kind of been catching up to us and yeah it is what it is.”

For the second consecutive game, the Beavers scored four runs to open the game as Braeden Cortes scored an earned run on a wild pitch while Brayden Mayencourt was at the dish, Koby Kropf scored on a Ryan Dauphinee single and  Matthew Armendariz hit a single to score Mayencourt and Nick Baker.

The Bulls would get four runs of their own back in the bottom of the first as Brandon Nicoll started things off with a double to score Roger Riley.

Brad Goodwin cut the Beavers lead in half with a single to cash in Nicoll.

Hunter Porter came up to the plate three batters later and hit a double to score Goodwin and Claerhout.

The tie would last two-and-a-half inning before  Nolan Machibroda came up and crushed a three-run home run in the fourth inning to right field with no one out to pull Weyburn ahead 7-4.

The Beavers doubled their lead in the fifth as Caelen Dalman hit a single with nobody out to score Dauphinee.

With one out in the bottom of fifth, Roger Riley hit an infield single and reached second on an error by the third baseman.

Goodwin came up to the plate two batters later and hit a single to score Riley and make the score 8-5.

Machibroda hit a one out sacrifice fly to score Armendariz and increase Weyburn’s lead to four runs

With two outs in the bottom of the eight, Kalem Haney hit a single up the gut to score Carlin Dick to cut Weyburn’s lead to 9-6.

Kropf hit a sacrifice fly to bring Dalman home for Weyburn’s 10th run of the game in the ninth 

Riley scored in the bottom of the ninth to make the final 10-7.

Wheatley thinks his club is never out the games.

“We can hit,” he said.

“So just need a good start coming up here and I’m sure we’ll get one.”

Weston Siefken took the loss in the game while Lucas Bacel took the win.

The Bulls had a successful week with a 4-2 record.

“We played some good baseball,” said Wheatley.

 “We played a first-place team  (Moose Jaw) over in the east and we’re overall happy with the stretch of games there.”

The Bulls are hoping to get some healthy bodies back as the injury list has gotten longer recently.

“We had a lot of injuries pile up here. So you know just get some guys back and get some rest for the bullpen arms and we’ll be good to go on Monday (tonight in Brooks).

The loss comes on the heels of a 14-13 win on Friday night.

The Bulls were up 19-10 on Brooks on Monday as of the eigth inning.

The Bulls next home game is tonight against Brooks.