Mavericks Finish Conference Schedule With A Pair Of Wins

Sunday marked the final day of conference play in the 2018 Montana/Alberta American Legion baseball conference season and it came down to four teams to decided the placement of the middle of the pack in the seeding in next weeks state tournament.

In Missoula the Mavericks played host to the Lethbridge Elks in the final conference doubleheader of the season and at the start of the day the Mavericks sat in the seventh place spot, but by the end of the day could move up to the fifth place spot with a wins and help. The Mavs took care of business sweeping the Elks with a 5-1 win in the first game, and getting a walk off win in the second game beating Lethbridge 4-3 in the second game.

The Mavericks threw their veteran pitcher Dylan Chalmers at Lethbridge and Chalmers would pitch a near perfect game, only allowing one run off three hits, the first hit not coming until the top of the sixth inning. In addition to holding off the Elks Chalmers would go on to walk and strike out one batter in the seven innings he stood on the bump. Missoula sliced off at least one run in the first four innings off play, earning two to opening frame, but the story line of the game was the six errors that Lethbridge was charged with after an errorless game the night before.

Game two was a low scoring affair as the Mavericks tacked a run on in the first frame, and then added two more in the fourth to lead Lethbridge 3-0 after four innigs were in the books. The Elks were not done yet as Lethbriddge earned their first run of the game in the top of the fifth, and then with the Elks fans sporting their rally caps Lethbridge tied the game at three in the top of the third with a pair of runs. With Clayton Franke reaching in the bottom of the seventh, the Elks would let Franke slip around to third with one out. Short stop Brendan Buchanan came to the dish with one out and knocked a chipper into the let field gap, Franke tagged third base and rolled home to give the Mavs a walk off win.

Missoula will play their final regular season game Wednesday night as they host the Helena Senators in a seven inning non-conference contest.