Mavs spoil the Bulls home opener

By Lethbridge Herald on June 5, 2024.

Herald photo by JUSTIN SEWARD Lethbridge Bulls Ryan David misses the toss over to first from pitcher Drew Lenehan as the Medicine Hat Mavericks Brody Gardner ducks during Western Canadian Baseball League action at Spitz Stadium on Wednesday night.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Medicine Hat Mavericks used a couple of home runs to propel them to spoil the Lethbridge Bulls home opener with a 6-4 win on Wednesday night at Spitz Stadium.

“Just missed a couple pitches (that) ended up over the fence and that was basically (the) deciding factor,” said Ryan MacDonald, Lethbridge Bulls head coach.

MacDonald didn’t think the fatigue was a factor after the nine game road trip.

“I don’t think so, the guys are fired up for the home opener and they were ready go,” said MacDonald.

“We had a lot of hard hit baseballs and tonight just wasn’t our night.”

The Mavs got on the board first when Michael Quick hit a three-run home run to give the road team an early 3-0 lead in the second inning.

Josh Kabayama hit a single to score Ryan David to cut the score to 3-1 in the bottom of the  second.

Brody Gardner hit a lead-off home run in the third to give the Mavs a 4-1 lead.

A single by Kyle Yip scored Roberto Chaparo in the bottom of the third to cut the lead to 4-2.

Nick Gravel hit into a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the sixth to score Jack Kalisky to bring the score  to 4-3.

Jordan Phillips drew a walk with the bases loaded to score Johnny Vulcano to make it 5-3 in the seventh for the Mavs.

Vulcano hit a double to score Quick in the top of the eighth to make it 6-3 Mavs.

The Bulls added a run with bases loaded in the ninth to make the final 6-4.

The loss comes after a crazy 31-26 win over the Brooks Bombers on Tuesday night to conclude the nine game road trip.

The Bulls (5-5) host the Bombers tonight at 7 p.m. at Spitz Stadium.

“We’re just going in with the mindset to attack the fastballs early and fill up the zone with strikes and a way we go again,” said MacDonald.