MAVERICKS – Blown lead late in Edmonton costs team Game 3
Prospects walk off Mavericks to edge 2-1 series lead
EDMONTON They’re not a heavy-hitting team, but the Edmonton Prospects hit the one they needed over the heads of the Medicine Hat Mavericks to earn a 4-3 win Wednesday.
Jake Lanferman slugged an 0-1 curveball from Connor Deeds over the head of centre fielder David Salgueiro in the ninth inning, completing a comeback and sending most in the crowd of 1,648 at Re/Max Field home happy.
“He’s been doing that the whole time, that’s not even what I was trying to do,” Lanferman said of Salgueiro playing shallow with one out and runners at first and second. “Just trying to put barrel on the ball there, that one just took off a little.”
Lanferman was mobbed after Derek Shedden scored the winning run, his jersey ripped off him and water bottles flying far in the air.
Salgueiro was not made available to speak by Mavericks coach Michael Thompson, who instead vented his frustration at what he believed were incorrect calls by the umpiring staff of Chris Hartley at home plate, Darren DeKinder and Brandon Strockey in the field.
“It’s too bad they have to influence the game the way they do,” said Thompson. “That’s a hard-fought game on both sides, we did enough to win that game. Obviously we missed a couple of opportunities but when they take the bat out of your hands or step in and influence the game, it’s really disappointing to do that to these guys who are working their butts off.”
Thompson was upset with a few calls in the game: He usually is yet rarely speaks out about it afterwards. Reliever Barry Caine walked two batters in the ninth to set up the winning hit, though Thompson thought at least one should’ve been called out on strikes.
In any case, the Mavericks are down 2-1 in the best-of-five Western Major Baseball League semifinal series and need to win in Edmonton tonight to force a fifth game back home Friday. They’ll send ace Jared Libke to the mound against fellow right-hander Scott Gillespie.
For the first six innings Tanner Helms held the Prospects in check, only letting up an Erik Sabrowski single in the fourth before running into trouble in the seventh. Meanwhile Salgueiro scored from second base on a Zaine Foth-Thomas wild pitch in the third, Colton Wright hit a bloop RBI single in the sixth and a Taran Oulton wild pitch let Chris Caffrey trot home in the seventh.
But after a ball got under Salgueiro’s glove to put Prospects runners on second and third in the bottom of the seventh, RBI singles from Lanferman and Zane Takhar tied the game at 3-3, setting the stage for heroics in the ninth.
Medicine Hat had a chance in their half, but Rock Jordan ran through Thompson’s stop sign to get tagged out by a country mile at third on Chris Rodriguez’s single.
“What happens in the end is what counts,” said Prospects coach Ray Brown. “These guys, they just waited for a better pitch to hit and the ball found some eyes. It worked for us.”
Andrew Mirasty wound up the winning pitcher for Edmonton, which won last year’s league semifinal series against Medicine Hat and would love to repeat.
“We’ve got a bunch of heart on our team, when we rally together we can put up runs pretty quick,” said Lanferman, who’s now 7-for-14 in the series with six runs scored. “We’re never out of a game I don’t think, we’re going to keep rolling.”
In the WMBL’s Eastern Conference finals, Swift Current avoided a sweep by beating the Beavers 6-5 in Weyburn.