The St. Albert Cardinals finished the long weekend off strong in the Early Bird Tournament held at Legion Memorial Park.
The peewee AAA Cardinals dominated in the round robin in their division, coming out on top, and undefeated. The peewee AAA team had a sweep against the Sherwood Park Athletics Club, 22-1 in the semi-final game. The semi-final win brought the Cardinals to the gold-medal face-off against the Red Deer Braves, which the team swiftly won with a final score of 14-1.
“The bats came alive this weekend, and our defence is getting better each game,” says peewee AAA coach Mark Brisson of his team’s success this weekend.
The peewee AAA Cardinals are facing off against the Braves again in a triple-header series next weekend.
The bantam AAA Cardinals had a rougher start, losing their first two games of the round robin. The bantam AAA team first faced the Edmonton Cardinals in a close game, losing 7-8. The second game versus the Lethbridge Thunder, saw the Cards lose 7-10. The weekend then took a turn for the bantam AAA team, with two consecutive wins, one against the East Central Bulls (9-5), in which the team hit a home run and struck out six of their opponents, and then another win, against the Saskatoon Cardinals (11-5).
The team was then in the gold medal game, against the Edmonton Cardinals once again. Unfortunately the Cards were not able to pull off a win, losing the game 12-15. However, the bantam AAA team did finish off the tournament with silver medal honours.
The midget AA Cardinals won their round robin pool, and eventually went on to win the gold medal in the tournament. Their first game of the round robin was against the Community Park Reds, with a score of 10-0 for the Cardinals.
The midget AA team then faced the Stony Plain Royals, and won again, 10-3, followed by a scoreless tie game with the SJP Jays (0-0), obviously a pitcher-dominated game. The Cardinals then beat the Fort Saskatchewan Red Sox in the gold medal final, 9-3.
Midget AA head coach Jason Enright says he feels confident about his team’s upcoming season, due to having a strong mix of returning and new players. Enright attests the mixture of experience and youth makes him believe that their season may be stronger than seasons in the past. He explains that the outcome of this weekend was an overall strong team effort, and not due to just a few key players.
Further information about the Cardinals baseball program can be found at www.stalbertbaseball.com.
