The fourth place St. Albert Cardinals carry on a hot streak with its fourth win in a row when the team beat the SEEBA 1 Cardinals Wednesday night.
Jackson Wark opened the game and pitched an impressive six of the seven innings, leading the team to an 8-3 victory over the competition at Legion Memorial Park.
“It was Jackson’s best start of the year with us,” Sean Erikson, assistant coach, said. “He went out on the mound and made it look easy. He had a bit of a rough start but settled in and cruised after that. Once he finds a strike zone it’s a good thing for us and a bad thing for them.”
Erikson is happy with the timing as the team is entering its busy season and is starting to prepare for provincials on the August long weekend.
“We just need to keep doing what we are doing,” Erikson said. “We have a big busy July so just stay busy and get hot going into provincials.”
The first inning opened with St. Albert in the hole after allowing the visitors to score two runs. The home team responded with dominance at the plate and took advantage of field errors to pull into the lead. Eleven batters were sent up for the home team and totaled six runs by the end of the inning.
For the remainder of the game the St. Albert Cardinals allowed just one run and contained any offence the away team could generate. The opposition fought hard between pitches and managed to steal four bases and only give up one. Despite their best efforts SEEBA 1 could not recover from their first period slump.
“We pitched well,” Erikson said. “We got ahead early and didn’t give them any free bases. We made them earn everything and didn’t give them a chance to get back in the game.”
The Cardinals are taking part in the annual Tigers’ tournament this weekend hosted by the St. Albert senior men’s AAA team. They are hoping the tournament will allow them to face a higher level of competition and prepare them for provincials.
“It’s a good chance to play against the men’s team and to test ourselves,” Erikson said. “It’s a good challenge and we are probably going to see a lot of pitchers that pitch differently than the high-school guys we are used to seeing. When we play the men’s team and get up to their level it will make the high school guys seem easier.”
The Cardinals play their first game of the tournament on Saturday July 10 at 9 a.m. against the Fort Saskatchewan A’s. Its next league game is on Wednesday July 15 at 7 p.m. at Legion Memorial Park where the team is set to take on the eleventh place SEEBA 2.
