Behind a strong pitching effort by starter Cody Burgmeier and reliever Shawn Griffith as well as a big day from the bottom of the lineup, the Mavericks ended their home season at Lindborg-Cregg Field and their Western Division schedule with their second straight 11-4 victory.
No. 9 hitter Taylor Nordby paced the Missoula bats, going 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs as the Mavs (18-6 in league play, 48-21 overall) erased an early 4-0 deficit for the second time in as many days.
“I thought we played much better today,” he said. “The whole effort was better. We started slow, but we hit the ball several times at people. We just had a hard time getting that zero off the board. Once we did, we really got going.”
Tyler Czech's double in the second scored a pair of Elks and was followed by a run-scoring single by Brock Fulkerth. Lethbridge scored again in the third on a single by Tanner Granberg that staked the visitors to their early lead.
The Mavs failed to register a base hit until Kendal Maier's one-out single in the fourth triggered a three-run rally that cut Lethbridge's lead to one. Nordby's two-run double was followed by Brody Miller's RBI single as the Elks' lead was trimmed to 4-3.
Missoula tied it on a Taylor King single to right before the Mavericks pulled ahead for good on Nordby's perfectly executed delayed squeeze bunt single. Sam Sopko added an RBI single for the Mavs in the sixth before errors contributed to another Missoula run in the seventh and four more in the eighth.
Sopko finished with singles in his final three at-bats, while King went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Brendan Brown finished 2-for-3.
In the meantime, Burgmeier settled down to collect his 12th win against three defeats. After his rocky second and third frames he allowed only a harmless two-out single over his final three innings of work. On the afternoon, Burgmeier gave up seven hits, didn't issue a walk and fanned four in six complete.
“Burgy was solid for us today,” Hathaway said. “The difference for us today with our pitchers was the fact that we worked both halves of the plate.”
Shawn Griffith relieved Burgmeier and appeared to lock up the No. 3 starter's role when the Mavs take the league's second seed to the State AA tournament beginning Saturday in Great Falls. Griffith sent Lethbridge down in order before allowing back-to-back singles in the top of the ninth. He then got Spencer Farrell to line out to right for the final out of the game.
“I thought today our pitchers performed well and we hit the ball fairly sharply,” Hathaway said. “It's such a beautiful game when its played well and played with passion. Our guys proved that today.”
Following the cancellation of Missoula's scheduled game at Butte on Tuesday, the Mavs see their final regular-season contest Wednesday at the Helena Senators.
Notes: Lethbridge failed in its attempt to make the state tournament after the Kalispell Lakers earned a doubleheader sweep of Medicine Hat on Sunday. The Elks lost their final four games, giving the Lakers the No. 3 seed from the conference... Five Mavericks in the final year of eligibility said goodbye to Lindborg-Cregg Field on Sunday - King, Brown, Burgmeier, Lincoln Mansch and Wes Martens.
Lethbridge 031 000 000 - 4 9 4
Missoula 000 321 14x - 11 14 1
Joel Dragland, Tyler Czech (6), Mitch Maxwell (8) and Braedon Horon. Cody Burgmeier, Shawn Griffith (7) and Andy Freeman. W - Burgmeier (12-3). L - Dragland.
LETHBRIDGE - Brock Fulkerth 2-5, Mark Clauson 1-4, Spencer Farrell 0-5, Kyle Rokosh 0-4, Maxwell 1-4, Horon 0-4, Tanner Granberg 2-4, Czech 2-4, Chad Northcott 1-3.
MISSOULA - Brody Miller 1-6, Ben Roberts 0-4, Matt McMann 0-2, Brendan Brown 2-3, Freeman 1-4, Sam Sopko 3-5, Drew Lytle 1-4, Kendal Maier 2-5, Taylor King 2-3, Taylor Nordby 2-4.
2B - Maxwell, Czech, Nordby. RBIs - Fulkerth, Granberg, Czech 2, Miller, Sopko, Lytle, King 2, Nordby 3.
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