The St. Albert Cardinals are rising to the occasion this season in midget AAA baseball.
The Red Birds spread their wings for 17 wins and five losses last month while going 12-1 in the Norwest league.
“We had really high expectations going in, especially from my coach (Cam Houston), but I think we’ve exceeded that even. We’ve been doing really, really good and everyone has been chipping in,” said centrefielder Anthony Owen. “We’ve probably met those expectations even more because of how well we’ve played.”
The flying start by the Cardinals has been a collective effort by all 20 players.
“Our whole team has shown up,” said catcher Danny Tkachyk. “We’ve played really well as a team. Our team chemistry from this year to last year is so much better. Most of us have been playing together for years and that is a huge part of us playing so well together.”
The roster is bolstered by 10 newcomers, including six additions from last year’s bantam AAA Cardinals, the provincial Tier I champions and fourth-place finishers at the U15 Baseball Canada tournament.
“The first years are really good this year. They’ve all been together for a long time and they’ve kind of grown together.”
The Norwest leaders are averaging 8.8 runs per game and 2.1 against in league play and three of the wins were shutouts.
“Hitting has been a huge part of it. Everyone is going up there with good approaches. Everyone is aggressive at the plate and swinging at balls so we don’t get strikeouts,” said Owen, a fourth-year Cardinal.
“Our bats are consistent. We take good at-bats,” Tkachyk added. “Our pitchers are consistent throwing strikes. One guy comes in and throws strikes and the next guy comes in and throws strikes. We have that depth.
“We’ve also turned more double plays this year so far than I’ve ever been a part of.”
The Cardinals rattled off 12 consecutive victories in the Norwest circuit before Wednesday’s 2-0 loss to SEEBA (7-2), last year’s Baseball Alberta Tier I champion, at John Fry Park.
Last year the Cardinals went undefeated in 12 Norwest games before suffering their first loss en route to a 22-16 fifth-place record and 30-24-2 overall mark entering provincials.
“Last year we played a lot of weak teams at the start. We beat those guys and everyone was doing OK and once we got to the harder teams we struggled,” Owen said. “This year we’ve already played some really good teams and everyone, even the first years, are contributing to the team.”
The 2016 Cardinals were mainly first and second year midgets after several players graduated from the 2015 silver medallists at the provincial Tier 1 and Western Canada U18 championships.
The Cardinals were also unsuccessful for the first time in four years at provincials in qualifying for the Tier I final.
“Last year we had Erik Sabrowski (2015 Baseball Alberta player of the year in the Norwest league) for those first few games and he was our team leader. He ignited our pitching staff and our bats. He was the big guy and then he had to go play for the Edmonton Prospects,” Tkachyk said. “We had guys do big things in big situations like every team should have and this season we have a whole bunch more like him.”
The most memorable game so far was the team’s sixth Norwest win and the first tilt of the season against the Parkland Twins (11-3).
“There was a controversial slide at home where it was a double play to end the bases loaded and they didn’t like it. They thought he tried to take out the catcher and then their second baseman threw at our dugout and we almost brawled. We were chirping back and forth,” Tkachyk said. “We ended winning 11-0 so it felt pretty good after all of that going on.”
The Cardinals also finished the Perfect Game Mother’s Day Classic in Okotoks with four wins and two losses and are 1-3 in exhibition action after a skeleton lineup defeated the Sherwood Park A’s 4-1 Tuesday at Legion Memorial Park.
“Even though this game didn’t matter statistically-wise we came out and played as hard as we could. The pitchers came out and did their job and we got key hits in good situations,” said Tkachyk, 18, a Grade 12 Paul Kane High School student and third-year Cardinal who also plays left field when needed.
This weekend the Cardinals host the Grande Prairie-based Prairie Lights (10-4) in a three-game series. Start times are 3 and 6 p.m. today and 10 a.m. Sunday.
“We try to come out against every single team the same no matter what, even if it’s a team that is 0-20 or team that is 20-0, you can’t let a game slip away. You’ve got to go hard every single game and play it like it’s the most important game,” said Owen, 18, a Bellerose Composite High School graduate. He is an over-ager on the Cardinals with Conor Bronson and both are ineligible for westerns or nationals.
