The St. Albert Cardinals finished the season on a winning note, but not as the bantam AAA provincial champions.
The host team for the Baseball Alberta performance Tier I draw played their last game Sunday, an 8-3 triumph against Sherwood Park Gold at Legion Memorial Park.
“It’s always a positive to end the season with a win,” said Dave Maguire, field manager for the 22-12 Cardinals.
Going into the last round robin game in the weekend tournament, the Cardinals were playing for pride while Sherwood Park already had a spot locked up in the final against Foothills Black.
“It’s a reflection on this team and how hard they’ve worked together and how focused they’ve been all year. It’s always been a never-quit attitude,” Maguire said. “This was an important game for Sherwood Park because, if they had won, then it would take two to beat them in the final. Our guys came out and really took it to them and showed them who is the better team.”
Sherwood Park went on to lose the final 11-3 to the Okotoks-based Foothills club. In the round robin, Sherwood Park beat Foothills 10-8.
Southpaw Cam Mazur scattered six hits over five innings in the season finale. The first-year bantam also walked twice, stole a base and scored twice as the Cardinals swept all four games against Sherwood Park this year.
“We just wanted to finish on a high. We came out and played hard. We played it like any regular game that we would be playing and the result was great,” said Mazur, 14.
The player of the game for the Cardinals was poised and polished on the mound.
“I felt very good out there. I was just trying to hit my spots the whole game and not worry about the batter. I was just throwing like I do in practice, and that’s throw hard,” said Mazur, who also plays centre field and sometimes first base when he is not firing strikes.
Austin Watamaniuk allowed only one hit in two innings of relief.
Sam Forster sparked the offence with three RBIs and Scott Millar drove in two as the Cardinals finished the round robin at 2-2.
“We thought we had a good chance this year at provincials. We finished off good, which is the main thing, but it would’ve been nice to make it farther, like westerns or nationals,” Mazur said.
The Cardinals started provincials with a bang by pounding SEEBA 15-1 in five innings Friday morning.
“That was a very good game we played. We were very, very excited. We thought we had a great chance of going far,” Mazur said.
The Cardinals erupted for nine runs in 4-2/3 innings against SEEBA’s best pitcher. Highlighting the 14-hit attack was Mazur’s bases clearing double. Aaron Larose batted 3-for-4 with two RBIs and Miller also cashed in two runs.
Starting pitcher Mat Brisson and reliever Connor Burns combined on a three-hitter. Brisson also struck out four in four innings of work.
The next game was a 13-8 loss to the Red Deer Braves on Friday night.
“We played a pretty good game. We made a couple of mistakes that cost us runs and ultimately cost us the game,” Maguire said.
The Cardinals put up three runs in the first inning, then committed three errors in the top of the second, which helped Red Deer score four runs. The Cardinals led 8-5 after four innings, but they couldn’t get the timely hits and Red Deer did.
Watamaniuk was the only Red Bird with a multiple-hit game with three.
Larose and Eric Sabrowski pitched for the Cardinals.
“It was back and forth and then they got a five-run lead in the sixth, which kind of lowered our confidence,” Mazur said. “It was a tough loss. We split the series with them all year. We beat them twice, they beat us twice.”
The low point at provincials was Saturday’s 12-0 loss in five innings to Foothills. Isagha Eagletail and Graeme Cherry combined to no-hit the Cardinals while striking out six. The Cardinals had four base runners, three via hit batsmen and one error.
“We’ve had trouble with them all year. They’re a very good team,” Mazur said. “They just shut us down.”
First-year bantam pitchers Jackson Wark and Alex Marthiensen faced a daunting task against a well-oiled Foothills squad that practices and plays year-round in a state of the art indoor training facility. A rash of walks against a team that runs the bases like gazelles also hurt the Cardinals.
“We played Okotoks three times this year and we lost all three times. If you look at the scores you think, ‘Holy crow, they totally destroyed us,’ but defensively we played very good against them,” Maguire said.
The loss all but sealed their fate at provincials.
“It just didn’t work out for us but I’m absolutely thrilled with how this team performed this year,” Maguire said. “We had a meeting after the game and we reviewed a lot of our accomplishments this year and talked about how we can build on those accomplishments going into today’s game. We wanted to finish the season on a winning note, and today, we reemphasized a few small things and then just let them go out and play the game and they did.”
The Cardinals graduate six players to midget and welcome back seven returnees next season.
“I’m pretty excited about the boys I’m sending to midget because they will have a real positive impact on that program,” Maguire said. “It also bodes well for us for next year coming back with seven veterans.”
