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Hard night for Medicine Hat infield as
Swift Current wins 7-2
COLLIN GALLANT
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Read the box score from Monday's 7-2
Medicine Hat loss to the Swift Current Indians and you won’t
get the full view of the head-to-head battle between the middle
infielders of the two Western Major Baseball League clubs.
The Swift Current batters punched out more
slow moving grounders than a John Deere production line, spraying
the Mavericks infield with well-placed knucklers, then unleashed
speed that was straight from Ferrari.
It led to a long, busy night for the
Medicine Hat middle infield duo of Kevin Annett and Ritchie
Nasser.
"They found the holes and those guys are
pretty fast," said Annett, who paired with Nasser for three errors
— two were erased with follow-up double plays — and had
to rush the ball all night.
The Indians are the best fielding team in
the WMBL, and at 19-5 just happen to be the winningest.
The Mavs (11-20) open a two-game series
against the Melville Millionaires (9-12) on Wednesday night.
The defensive battle started in the first
inning Monday when Indians leadoff man Shawn Lee's slow rolling
grounder was chased down by Annett on the other side of second base
and the Maverick made an acrobatic spinning throw that just missed
retiring the speedster.
'I don’t think I would have got a
slow guy out," said Annett.
Lee eventually scored when a hard liner
from Swift's Kyle Albright glanced off the glove of Nasser at
short. That ball would have surely been a double play, but the Hat
infield turned the trick on the following play to choke off the
threat.
The Indians infield was full of tricks as
well.
Second baseman Dustin Bissonette stretched
out to nab a liner from Griffin Sweazey. At short, Rossario turned
tough balls into highlights all night.
"Just make the easy play," said Rossario,
a Massachusetts native who showed all-star tools on Monday.
"Nice and easy. People say that we
can’t win on the road... We just do our thing. Get on
somehow, then get home."
Lee (2-for-4 with two infield singles)
scored twice as Swift led 4-2 after three. They then scored three
in the late innings against Medicine Hat starter Cam Rittinger, who
went the distance giving up 14 hits for the short staffed Mavs.
The Mavericks got on the board in the
first touching 6-foot-5 right-hander Nick Bratney (seven innings,
seven hits, two walks) for three straight singles to tie the game
1-1.
Indians veteran Cole Armstrong knocked a
solo home run to left-field to lead off the second.
In the third, Rossario (2-for-4) took off
for third base while Rittinger was choosing pitchers, then scored
on a sacrifice fly, but Medicine Hat centre-fielder Erik Church
doubled to lead off the third, then scored on a drive from Hogan
Barnes (2-for-3).
Braden Edwards slammed into the outfield
wall trying to take a triple away from Kyle Albright, then a
surprise bunt play put the Indians fourth run across in the
third.
Medicine Hat put two on with none out, in
the sixth, but Bratney got out of the jam. Then Indians relievers
Brandon Dahl and Shawn Lee threw on inning each to close out the
game.
'They’re a good ball team and at
4-2 (in the third), I felt pretty good," said Mavs manager Mike
Greene. "We were playing even with them. I don’t think the
errors hurt us that much tonight." |
