LONDON, Ont. – Perhaps the Mustangs will look back at their three-game losing streak last weekend – which included a pair of home losses to the Guelph Gryphons (2-7) – as the turning point in their 2009 campaign.
After all, Western has spun off four straight wins since then thanks to back-to-back doubleheader sweeps over the Waterloo Warriors and the Laurier Golden Hawks on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
It wasn’t necessarily that the Mustangs played poorly during their losing skid. The Gryphons sure didn’t play like a last-place team while at Labatt Park. The visitors received solid pitching performances from starters Colin Calvert and Adam Reynolds, and got some timely hitting as well. The ‘Stangs were then dealt a come-from-behind 6-5 loss at the hands of the Brock Badgers, who are notoriously near the top of the OUA standings.
Still, Western didn’t get the results where it matters most: in the win-loss column. And with such a short regular season (18 games), every game takes on a great deal of importance. That’s why Mustangs manager Mike Lumley was thrilled that his team regrouped to turn the tables and win four straight games this past weekend, improving to 8-4 on the year.
“It’s a big step in the right direction,” Lumley said. “Obviously, we lost three in a row and felt that we were better than the three losses for sure. We were on the verge of a couple less errors and a couple more hits away from blowing teams away. And that’s basically what happened [this weekend].”
The Mustangs first battered the Warriors, 9-2 and 13-2, in a Saturday doubleheader at Jack Couch Park. Aside from pounding out 22 runs on 21 hits on the afternoon, Western also received solid outings from their top two starting pitchers – Jordan Townshend and Andrew Bergman. The latter needed just 59 pitches to get through five innings en route to the win in Game 2.
Western then travelled to Brantford on Sunday for a doubleheader against the Golden Hawks, who entered the day just a half-game behind the Badgers for first in the OUA standings. The Mustangs, though, handed Laurier a pair of losses, 6-3 and 8-2, to give them four straight wins – impressively, all on the road.
So was it a turning point for Western? Lumley certainly thinks so.
“Oh, absolutely,” he said. “You could see the difference in the weekend. When we came back to Laurier we knew that was going to be probably the biggest point of the season right there. Right from the time we stepped on the field for infield/outfield (warmup), we could tell the difference in where the team wanted to go.”
Apparently that team wants to make a run at an OUA championship in 2009. And their play on the weekend showed that they’re capable of making that a reality – the main reason being that they showed some offensive firepower that had been lacking in games past.
Lumley’s Mustangs have relied on a ‘small ball’ style of offense for a number of years, manufacturing runs by moving runners over and being aggressive on the basepaths. And while Western has certainly had success with this approach, it isn’t ideal if the bats are unable to get timely hits. That is something the Mustangs found out the hard way last year when the bats went cold and the team was eliminated by McMaster in the semi-finals.
Now, it appears as though Western may be altering its approach at the plate. The early returns -- as seen on the weekend -- are as follows: 36 runs in four games (nine runs per game). In comparison, the Mustangs had scored just 38 runs over their first eight games this season (4.75 runs per game).
“Outstanding,” is how Lumley characterized the Western offense on the weekend. “At the start of the season we played small ball. But [this weekend] it got to the point where, we didn’t bother. We changed a little philosophy and decided just to let them go ahead and swing and see what happened. And it was the right choice.”
That’s not to say that the skipper will abandon the small ball approach entirely.
“I think we’ll go game by game and by situations,” he said. “In the past, we haven’t been a tremendous hitting team, but this team is a pretty good hitting team.”
And the hitting is spread out across the lineup quite equally. Andrew Thomson leads the team with 17 hits and a .395 batting average to go along with his league-leading 12 runs. Bruce Craine (.270) leads the league in walks with 13, while shortstop Shawn Robinson (.280) has a team-high 12 RBIs.
If, come playoff time, the Western offense can duplicate what it did during the past weekend, the team would certainly have a great shot at taking back the OUA banner in 2009. Anchored by strong pitching and defense, it’s the offense that could put the Mustangs over the top.
For now though, Lumley and his team is focused on the present.
“We just want to eye one game at a time,” said the veteran skipper. “It’s the old cliché, but we don’t want to look too far forward. We just want to improve every time we go out there.”
With a clean four-game sweep on the weekend, they’ve put themselves in a much better position than a week ago. At 8-4, Western has the most wins in the league and now sits in a three-way tie for first, a few percentage points behind both Brock (7-3) and McMaster (7-3).
Next up for Western is a trip to Guelph on Tuesday night for the team’s fifth straight road game – this time against the same Gryphon squad that handed them back-to-back losses a mere 10 days ago.
And while the Mustangs will not only be looking for their fifth win in a row, Lumley says they’ll also be seeking “ a little redemption.”
First pitch is set for 7:00 p.m. at Hastings Stadium in Guelph, ON.
