The St. Albert Cardinals were six outs away from a Baseball Alberta repeat as midget AAA Tier I champions when Okotoks Dawgs Black spoiled the celebration party at Legion Memorial Park.
Leading by seven runs the Cardinals were flying high in Sunday's final until the Dawgs scored five times in the bottom of the sixth inning and then in their last at-bat pushed two runs across to tie it at eight before Clayton Keyes capped off the comeback with a grand slam to break the Red Birds' hearts.
"It's unbelievable. I can't even explain it. There are no words for what we did out here today," said Keyes with a look of astonishment after the Dawgs roared back to win 12-8.
Keyes, the No. 9 hitter in a dangerous Dawgs' order, went yard off reliever Jeremy Gamracy with one out and the count at one ball and two strikes.
"It was a fastball right down the middle. I just saw it, decided to swing and it worked," said Keyes, who was mobbed by teammates after clearing the fence in left-centre field. "As soon as I hit it, I looked away and threw off my helmet."
Gamracy was the second pitcher for the Cardinals in the seventh after Spencer Dronkelaar took over from starter Mat Brisson, the team's player of the game, to open the inning.
Dronkelaar faced four batters and was charged with three earned runs on three hits on nine pitches (four balls, five strikes) and Gamracy (seven balls, five strikes) pitched to three Dawgs.
With one out Ashton Roy doubled home two runs off Dronkelaar to make it eight apiece.
Gamracy entered the game and walked the first batter he faced on four pitches. He hit the next batter with the count at one ball and two strikes to load the bases, setting the stage for Keyes' heroics.
"We just kind of got down on pitching. Also, it's a very tough lineup to get through. They've got a bunch of experienced hitters on that team. We couldn't get out of that inning before (in the sixth) and coming out of the pen it was a tough one. They found some holes and we just couldn't get it done," said Cam Houston, head coach of the Cardinals, on the disappointing ending.
In the sixth, the Dawgs scored five runs on three hits. Brisson also hit three batters in a row after Roy doubled with two out.
Peter Hutzal's triple with the bases loaded left the Dawgs trailing by two.
Brett Esau, the Dawgs' clean-up hitter, belted a first-pitch solo homer with one gone in the sixth for the team's second run to kick-start the rally.
The Dawgs strung seven hits together in the last two innings for 12 in total, two more than the Cardinals.
"We were just having better at-bats, swinging at good pitches, seeing the ball a little better and that was the key to getting back into the game," said Keyes, a centre-fielder who batted 2-for-3 with five RBIs and two runs scored. "Honestly, our guys have been crushing the ball all weekend."
The Dawgs opened the scoring in the second and the Cardinals responded with four runs on four hits in the third, highlighted by Erik Sabrowski's two-run, two-out double with the bases loaded. Jake Fischer and Ian Pollard also singled home runs after Sabrowski made it 2-1.
In the fourth, Matt Quartel singled with two outs for the team's third run and in the fifth a couple of errors, a wild pitch and Peter Corrigan's RBI paved the way for Sabrowski, who led off the inning, to score.
In the sixth, and a new pitcher on the mound for the Dawgs, Brisson led off with a single, Quartel doubled and Austin Watamaniuk's sac fly scored Brisson. A wild pitch with two out brought Quartel in from third base to increase the lead.
The Dawgs were charged with three errors overall, compared to one for the Cardinals.
"They were getting pretty clutch hits and we made a couple of errors which ended up giving them a couple of runs but at the end of the game we just tightened it up," said Keyes, 16, the Dawgs' player of the game. "There is always a little bit of pressure in games like this, you've just got to battle it out and we ended up doing it."
Brisson led Cardinals with three hits and Quartel and Fischer collected two apiece.
"We were swinging it pretty well. Everybody contributed, whether it was laying down a bunt to trying to swing and move the guy over. Everybody, one to nine, did their job," said Brisson.
The fourth-year midget and one of two over-age Cardinals tossed an eight-hitter on 101 pitches (39 balls and 62 strikes). He struck-out two, walked one and was charged with one wild pitch, in addition to the three hit batters in a row in the sixth. All six runs were earned.
"On the mound I got lucky a couple of times but I hit my spots for the most part, got a couple of ground balls and some big defensive plays," said Brisson, who moved to third base in the seventh when the Cardinals switched pitchers.
The Cardinals deserved a better fate down the stretch after putting the Dawgs on the brink of defeat.
"I just didn't think the guys died the whole way. We kept fighting. We had a lot of two out, two-strikes battles. We put a lot of runs on with two outs, which shows the heart in these guys. They're not going to lay down and die, they're going to keep working," Houston said.
When asked what he told the players in the post-game huddle in the outfield, Houston replied: "Keep their heads up. A lot of people didn't expect us to be here at the end of the year and they worked their butts off all year," Houston said of the third-seeded Cardinals in the eight-team provincial draw after going 17-9, with only loss at home, in the NorWest league.
"You couldn't ask for a better group. Kids in St. Albert they know how to win and they know how to battle and these guys did an awesome job all the way through and for us to be in the final and to have a chance to win it is huge for us."
Off to westerns
The Cardinals will now regroup for westerns, Aug. 21 to 23 in Yorkton, Sask., while the Dawgs will prepare for nationals, Aug. 13 to 17 in Magog, Que.
"Baseball is one of those games you've got to have a short memory and let it go and focus on what the future holds," Houston said. "We've got a good shot to go there and represent Alberta and definitely we're going to try and bring another western championship back here."
Two years ago the Cardinals won westerns in Winnipeg after losing the provincial final by letting a big lead slipped away and an error in the seventh resulted in the go-ahead run in the 11-10 loss to Okotoks Dawgs Red.
Brisson was asked to compare the two gut-wrenching losses at provincials.
"Against Okotoks (in 2013) it was on their home field so we had a three-hour ride home to think about it but here this is where all of our memories are so this is going to sting a little bit more," said the tournament MVP at westerns.
Brisson, 18, is among a handful of Cardinals remaining from the 2013 team and one of 11 returning players from last year's Baseball Canada U18 silver medallists on the 19-man roster.
"Top to bottom, everybody from the first guy on the team to the 19th guy, left everything they had on that field. I couldn't have been more proud of anybody else. There is nobody else I would want to play beside."
Playoff shutout
The Cardinals put themselves in position to repeat by blanking the Sherwood Park A's 2-0 in Sunday's semifinal as Sabrowski struck out 10 while going the distance.
"It's surreal, just to host provincials the year after we win it is such an amazing experience but to battle in the final for the third year, trying to get back to back, that's what dreams are made of," Sabrowski said after his three-hit gem.
His pitch count against 27 batters was 93 (31 balls, 62 strikes) against the top team in pool A. He also issued one walk and hit one batter
"I just threw strikes and got ahead, that's all there is to it," said Sabrowski, who pitched his way out of a couple of jams with runners on base while stranding six overall. "When you get runners on base you just want to go back to your quiet spot. I just looked at the lights and I calm down and I just bear down and throw strikes."
Sabrowski, 17, shone bright as the team's player of the game.
"It's the first time I've ever thrown in a big game and it's the best pitching performance of my life," said the third-year midget, who also plays first base when he isn't throwing strikes. "I didn't sleep last night. I'm running on like an hour and a half of sleep and an energy drink."
It was scoreless until the fifth, when Pollard hit a one-out double, advanced to third on Corrigan's single and scored on Conor Bronson's bunt down the first-base line.
"Conor Bronson's push bunt was big. That's the only run we needed. We've been practising it all year. We haven't pulled it out until this game and it takes nuts to get it down in such a big spot," said Sabrowski, the team's No. 4 hitter, who reached base in the sixth with a one-out walk and scored on Fischer's double.
In pool B action Friday, the Cardinals mercied SEEBA 14-4 in six innings and Saturday hung tough to edge the Calgary Dinos 6-5 and with a semifinal spot secured lost 8-1 to the Dawgs, who beat Dawgs Red, the No. 1 seed, 9-2 in the semifinals.
"We played very good baseball against SEEBA. We left some runs on the board against the Dinos and we helped them come back in. Against Okotoks we took that game off," Sabrowski said. "But today I've never been prouder of these guys right now to battle like we did (against the A's) to win a game like this."
