The St. Albert Cardinals are struggling with consistency during an up and down midget AAA season.
The Red Birds are 9-7 in the NorWest circuit with 11 returning players from last year’s Baseball Canada national silver medallists on the 19-man roster.
“We’re not playing our best ball right now,” said Erik Sabrowski, a pitcher, first baseman and power hitter, prior to Wednesday’s practice at Legion Memorial Park.
Jake Fischer, a sure-handed second baseman, agreed.
“We definitely want to pick up our game a bit so we can get into playoff contention,” Fischer said. “We just need to work well as a team.”
An area of concern is pitching.
“We’re not pitching like we want to but the bats are definitely there and the fielding has been consistent enough to help us win,” Sabrowski said. “Once we figure out the pitching we’re golden, we’re going to be good.
“Once we walk less guys and make the other teams put the ball in play we’re going to be a good team.”
Walks have grounded the Cardinals from spreading their wings.
“We’re pitching pretty well but we need to throw more strikes and not walk so many guys,” said Fischer.
He also suggested the Cardinals have to pack a bigger punch offensively.
“We need to swing the bats as a whole team. The top of our order is usually pretty good and the bottom of our order they’re on and off so we need to find a way as a team to get them swinging the bats.”
Last year’s team, arguably one of the most talented St. Albert midget AAA lineups ever assembled at 47-16 overall, has been a hard act for the current Cardinals to follow.
“We can’t relay on a seven inning shutout anymore and we can’t win games 1-0 anymore, which we did a couple of times last year. We’ve got to score to win this year for sure,” said Sabrowski, a third-year Cardinal.
The defending Tier 1 provincial champions are also working on pulling together as a unit.
“We’re a pretty young team so it’s hard to connect as a team but it’s starting to come together,” Fischer said.
The season highlight for the Cardinals was their come-from-behind 9-8 win over the Calgary Dinos (14-5) on June 6 in Okotoks. They rallied from an 8-2 deficit with seven runs in the top of the seventh. With two out and the bases loaded for Sabrowski, and the Dinos leading by three, his double to deep centre field scored Mat Brisson, Matt Quartel and Austin Watamaniuk. The next batter, Anthony Owen, singled home Sabrowski for the go-ahead run with a shot to left field.
“That was probably the best outing we’ve had in coming together as a team,” said Fischer, 19, who has filled in at first base and last year did the bulk of the catching.
“It was probably our best performance,” Sabrowski added. “We were up in the dugout and everyone was picking each other up, scoring runs and stringing together hits.”
The last outing for the Cardinals was Tuesday’s 9-2 loss to the Athletics (15-10) in Sherwood Park.
“It was kind of a downer because we played quite well. Our starter, Ross (Supruniuk), pitched really well in the first five innings and then we went into the sixth inning and we made a few errors, booted it around a bit, and then they put together a big inning,” said Fischer, a Lacombe product and returning Cardinal who is batting .382 and is second on the team in hits with 13 in 34 at-bats, according to the latest NorWest stats.
The Cardinals were coming off Sunday’s doubleheader sweep of the Spruce Grove White Sox (13-7) by scores of 1-0 and 4-2 at Legion Memorial Park.
Brisson drove home Owen for the winning run in the sixth inning and combined with Tylor Jans on a seven-hitter in the shutout. Brisson walked five and struck-out while giving up six hits over six innings.
Sabrowski, 18, went the distance for his third win of the season while allowing five hits. He fanned seven and walked one as the Cardinals doubled the visitors.
The six-foot-three lefty has been a reliable starter for the Cardinals while logging more innings at this point in the season then the entire 2014 campaign.
“Last year, I probably had two starts and this year I think I’ve had eight or nine now,” said Sabrowski, who relies on a sneaky curveball as his main pitch. “I’m not really blowing the ball by anyone, I’m just getting a lot of ground balls and using my defence. I trust those guys to make the plays and they do.”
At the plate, Sabrowski is hitting .303 with a team-leading six doubles and 11 RBIs.
“I’m getting a lot of hits with guys on base. Earlier this year I wasn’t doing that, but now I’ve started to pick it up and drive runs in,” said the Grade 12 St. Francis Xavier High School student and the St. Albert Referees Association linesman who worked minor midget AAA and midget AA games last season.
The Cardinals host Okotoks Dawgs Black (14-2) today at 1 p.m. and Grande Prairie Reds (0-19), a NorWest newcomer, at 7 p.m.
Next week the Cardinals are competing in a Spokane tournament.
