The only loss of the season didn’t stop the St. Albert Cardinals from repeating as the Baseball Alberta mosquito competitive Tier I champions last weekend in Spruce Grove.
The gold-medal winning Cardinals are Matthew Cruthers, Logan McKinley, Michael Brisson, Ryan Marples, Will Gardner, Jared Gilbeau, Mohammed Harati, Kade Knight, Evan Kohut, Josh Ironside, Kyle Lawrence and Cole Brander. The field manager is Mark Brisson and the assistant coaches are Tim Marples, George Gilbeau and Scott Ironside.
“At the time it was a letdown to not finish the season undefeated but in reality, coaching with such a knowledgeable coaching staff, strong parental support, and an excellent group of young athletes, it seems perfect to me,” said coach Brisson.
The Cardinals winning streak ended at 31 games in Saturday’s 5-4 loss to Beaumont Braves in the round-robin draw.
“It was our first real experience with adversity this season,” said coach Brisson. “One of the reasons to love the game of baseball is that on any given day, any team can beat another where the best team may not always win, but the team playing the best can steal one.”
The Cardinals’ last game against Beaumont was a 36-2 blowout in league play.
“In provincials we ran into a hot pitcher who battled for five innings and had a 5-2 lead,” said coach Brisson. “After some excellent outfield diving catches from Cole Brander and Josh Ironside, we battled back in the bottom of the sixth to score two, but ran out of outs with runners in scoring position.”
Later in the day the Cardinals rebounded to end the round robin with a 17-4 victory against Sherwood Park Gold. A solid pitching performance by Gilbeau and an 18-hit attack clinched first place in the tournament draw.
“After a tough loss, our first one of the season, the players did not let the setback affect their season,” Brisson said.
In Sunday’s final, the Cardinals beat the Red Deer Braves 11-1 for their 33rd win in 34 games. Brisson started on the mound and allowed one run on three hits while throwing 77 pitches over 4-2/3 innings. Cruthers and McKinley fueled the hit parade and Marples was a rock behind the plate.
The St. Albert Early Bird and Kamloops tournament champions kicked off provincials Friday with a 23-1 thumping of the Spruce Grove Sox in four innings and downed Red Deer 16-5. After three close innings, the Cardinals pulled away from Red Deer in the top of the fourth with speedy base running by Lawrence, the Morinville connection of Knight and Kohut, hot bats and quality pitching by Marples. During four innings of work he threw 76 pitches.
In the 2011 final Marples twirled a complete-game, 72-pitch gem in leading the Cardinals to a 7-1 victory against Sherwood Park.
The Cardinals stormed into this year’s provincials with 18 wins in league play, two exhibition wins and nine tournament wins. An unofficial pre-season game ended in a tie.
Brisson and Marples were the only returning players from last year’s championship team.
“One of the reasons we have been successful all year has been our ability to hit the pitching that was thrown against us,” said coach Brisson. “In comparison to last year’s championship team, who came together as a hot team heading into the provincial tournament, we were able to balance our very strong defence, pitching, and batting throughout the season, and it showed with a dominant 33-1 record.”
