Unlucky 13

As the winter months turned into the spring months and your Prospects roster began to take shape, the belief was that his edition of the team was going to very competitive.  It took the defending West Division Champion Medicine Hat Mavericks 13 innings and a lucky break to defeat your Edmonton Prospects 6-5 in their season opener on Saturday night.

 The Prospects showed the tenacity you can expect all season long as they stormed back from a 5-1 deficit in the 7th inning.  More correctly, the Prospects walked back as with the bases loaded the patient bats of Joey Bergandi, Nathan Parade de la Feraude, and Tommy Clouthier took their base and cut the lead to 5-4.  Bergandi would then tie the game on a passed ball.

The passed ball would also be the lucky break the Mavericks would use in the 13th inning to break the tie and send your Prospects to Swift Current for their game Sunday night hungrier than ever for a victory!

Your Prospects would open the scoring in the first inning when Brandon Mikulka grounded into a fielders choice scoring Tommy Clouthier.

New Prospects Coach Cameron McMullen was quoted earlier this week saying his starting pitchers would only pitch a couple innings.  Prospects sent Justin Hanks to the bump for the start and he pitched a solid 1st and 3rd inning and did well surviving a bases loaded, no out situation in the 2nd inning only surrending three runs.

Tyler Harrison came into the game to pitch for the Prospects with one on in the 4th and retired the side in order.  The game was then rain delayed for about 10 minutes and the delay seemed to affect Harrison as he struggled but survived a bases loaded scare by the Mavericks in the 5th inning. 

After giving up a run in the bottom of the 6th, Cory Duggan took over on the mound.  The first batter Duggan faced would drive home a run with a sacrifice fly then Duggan slammed the door shut for the next four innings.

There were two sportcentre'esqe defensive plays.  In the 5th inning with the bases loaded and two out, the Mavs hit a screamer back up the middle only to have Tommy Clouthier fully extend himself and snatch it out of mid-air.  In the 8th inning with a man on board, a routine single is hit to CF Connor Battaglia.  With a cannon of a throw into the in-field the runner rounding third is too slow returing to third and is picked off.

UP NEXT:

Your Prospects are in Swift Current the next couple nights and anxiously await the home opener on Tuesday June 4th versus the Okotoks Dawgs at 7:05PM at Telus Field.  This will be your first chance to see the "unveiling" of something new and old. 

The first 200 fans to the ballpark will receive a Prospects Rally Megaphone so they can cheer on the team for the home opener and throughout the season. This megaphone doubles as a popcorn holder!