It turned out that third time was a charm for the Saskatoon Berries when it came to setting a new Western Canadian Baseball League standard for wins in a regular-season, but it didn’t happen without a lot of back-and-forth emotions and drama!
Third baseman Mason Roell wallopped a grand-slam home run with two out in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Berries out-lasted the Medicine Hat Mavericks 14-10 Sunday afternoon at Cairns Field for their 45th victory in 54 games. The previous record of 44 wins in a single season came in 2024 courtesy the Sylvan Lake Gulls. A crowd of 1,886 fans saw, essentially, two different games as Saskatoon and Medicine Hat breezed quickly through the first five innings, tied 1-1, thanks to excellent pitching on both sides. However, the final five innings were a roller-coaster of changing momentum, capped by Roell’s heroics. The West Bend, Wisconsin, product was oh-for-5 at the plate going into his game-winning blast to left field off the Mavericks’ fifth pitcher of the day, lefty Degan Sanders. Medicine Hat head coach Jonathan Thornhill chose to intentionally walk lefty designated hitter Abiam Medina to load the bases to bring Roell up. Prior to that, the Berries scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to take their first lead of the day at 7-6 – and were one out and one strike away from winning in the top of the ninth inning, only to have the Mavericks get a clutch opposite field hit from second baseman Jaden Babiuk to force extra innings. It looked like Saskatoon was headed for a third straight loss when Medicine Hat scored three runs in the top of the 10th, thanks to four of their 19 hits on the afternoon, for a 10-7 lead. However, right fielder Ethan Murdoch belted a home run to left field, leading off the bottom of the 10th off Sanders, scoring courtesy runner Nathan Houston to reduce the deficit to one run. Two walks and a single, sandwiched around a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly by first baseman Cory Wouters that scored catcher Bailyn Sorenson with the tying run, set the stage for Medina being intentionally walked and Roell’s fourth home run of the season that won the day, and the single-season wins record, for the Berries. The same teams, 45-9 Saskatoon and the 34-20 Mavericks, face each other Monday in the final game of the regular-season for both teams at 1 o’clock at Cairns Field. Following are Les Lazaruk’s post-game interviews with Roell, head coach Joe Carnahan and centre fielder Carter Beck plus the official box score courtesy the W-C-B-L…..
Game Date: 08/03/2025
Medicine Hat Mavericks 10 AT Saskatoon Berries 14 (EXTRA INNINGS)
YTD YTD
MedicineHat AB R H BI AVG Saskatoon AB R H BI AVG
Vulcano, A 1B,RF 5 2 2 0 .305 Beck, C CF 4 3 3 2 .385
Uzawa, Y RF 1 1 1 0 .306 Wouters, C 1B 5 0 2 1 .363
Chabot, J C,PH 4 1 1 0 .290 Medina, A DH 4 2 2 2 .360
Vanneste, T DH 6 1 2 2 .352 Roell, M 3B 6 1 1 4 .335
Roth, C 3B 5 2 5 1 .379 Houston, N SS 4 2 1 2 .312
Vulcano, Ad CF 5 0 0 0 .217 Murdoch, E RF 4 2 1 2 .325
Dale, B SS 6 0 1 1 .248 Sorensen, B C 4 0 0 0 .278
Babiuk, J 2B 5 0 4 2 .316 Freeman, J PR 0 1 0 0 .262
King, N 1B,C 5 1 0 0 .256 Wesslund, C 2B 3 1 0 0 .328
Dvorak, M LF 4 2 2 1 .262 Janner, E LF 4 2 1 1 .250
46 10 18 7 38 14 11 14
MedicineHat 1 0 0 0 0 3 2 0 1 3 - 10 18 0
Saskatoon 0 0 0 1 0 2 2 2 0 7 - 14 11 3
2B--Vanneste, T DH (8). HR--Roell, M 3B (4), Houston, N SS (3), Murdoch, E
RF (10). RBI--Vanneste, T DH 2 (35), Roth, C 3B (54), Dale, B SS (17),
Babiuk, J 2B 2 (13), Dvorak, M LF (30), TOTALS 7 (0), Beck, C CF 2 (43),
Wouters, C 1B (45), Medina, A DH 2 (41), Roell, M 3B 4 (39), Houston, N
SS 2 (38), Murdoch, E RF 2 (53), Janner, E LF (24), TOTALS 14 (0).
HP--Chabot, J C,PH (9), Vulcano, Ad CF (7). SF--Wouters, C 1B (1).
SH--Wesslund, C 2B (0). SB--Murdoch, E RF (13). CS--Babiuk, J 2B (3).
E--Wouters, C 1B (5), Roell, M 3B (9), Wesslund, C 2B (17).
LOB--MedicineHat 12, Saskatoon 7.
YTD
IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
MedicineHat
Spruiell, T 4.0 2 1 1 2 1 0 6.95
Cockrell, J 2.0 1 2 2 2 0 1 6.61
Levesque, G 0.1 3 2 2 1 0 0 7.22
Centella, D 2.2 2 2 2 1 3 0 3.45
Sanders, D (L,0-1) 0.2 3 7 7 3 0 2 30.37
9.2 11 14 14 9 4 3
Saskatoon
Martina, K 4.0 3 1 1 1 3 0 2.56
Rude, D 3.0 8 5 3 0 0 0 3.46
Chumrau, A 0.2 1 0 0 2 0 0 2.35
Hosick, T 1.1 3 1 1 0 0 0 2.70
Zdunich, T (W,1-0) 1.0 3 3 2 0 1 0 8.31
10 18 10 7 3 4 0
WP--Zdunich, T (1). HB--Rude, D 2 (7). SO--Vulcano, A, Dale, B 2, Dvorak,
M, Roell, M, Houston, N, Sorensen, B, Janner, E. BB--Vulcano, A, Roth, C,
Dvorak, M, Beck, C 2, Medina, A 2, Houston, N, Murdoch, E, Sorensen, B,
Wesslund, C, Janner, E. BF--Spruiell, T 16 (148), Cockrell, J 9 (78),
Levesque, G 5 (134), Centella, D 11 (119), Sanders, D 8 (20), Martina, K 14
(128), Rude, D 19 (118), Chumrau, A 4 (70), Hosick, T 7 (86), Zdunich, T 7
(49). P-S--Spruiell, T 52-31, Cockrell, J 35-18, Levesque, G 22-12,
Centella, D 46-30, Sanders, D 24-13, Martina, K 40-25, Rude, D 59-40,
Chumrau, A 17-8, Hosick, T 27-18, Zdunich, T 25-15.
T--3:18. A--1884
Weather: 27°C; sunny; E 31 km/h
Plate Umpire - Matt Schule, Field Umpire #1 - Phil McGee, Field Umpire #3 - Logan Nugent