The St. Albert Cardinals fly into the Norwest midget AAA lid-lifter with a younger flock of players than in previous years.
“I think we only have four Grade 12s so it’s a heavy first year and second year group but I like the guys. They’re pretty talented. We just need to click as a team a little bit and we’ll be good,” said Cam Houston, head coach of the 2015 silver medallists at the Baseball Alberta Tier 1 and the Western Canada U18 championships.
The Cardinals host the Fort McMurray Oil Barons in today’s doubleheader at 3 and 6 p.m. and Sunday’s game time is 10 a.m. at Legion Memorial Park.
“It’s really exciting. I can’t wait to get back on the field and play,” said shortstop/pitcher Zach Froment. “We’ve been trying to get the rust out in the exhibitions so this will be nice.”
The Cardinals and Sherwood Park A’s played to a 5-5 draw in extra innings Tuesday in St. Albert and the week before SEEBA 1 beat the home team 6-2.
“I want to see what these guys can do in league play. It’s little different playing exhibition games,” Houston said. “When we put nine guys out there hopefully we can come out and do what we need to do against Fort Mac, who is not always the strongest team, but as long as they take it seriously and know that any team can beat you on any day then hopefully we can get rolling and do well to start the year.”
The Cardinals have several arms that can throw strikes while backed by a solid defence but it’s been hit and miss throughout the batting order.
“We’re struggling a little bit at the plate right now. I think some guys are nervous coming in. It’s a new team and it’s definitely different,” Houston said. “We’ve got quite a bit of pitching depth and defensively we’re pretty strong so I think we’ll be able to hold guys to limited runs. Hopefully we’ll get these guys swinging a little bit and we’ll be in good shape.”
More than half of the players on the 18-man roster sharpened their skills in the offseason with the St. Albert-based Prospects Baseball Academy. Houston and Taylor Burns coach the Prospects Academy team and Sean Erikson, field manager for the bantam AAA Cardinals, and Ben Runyon are the midget academy team instructors. The Prospects recently played in the Best of the West tournament in Kamloops and two tournaments in Atlanta are scheduled for the week of May 16 to 23.
“Playing with the older guys it’s the best competition out there so you’re ready as you can be for this (league play),” said Froment, a first-year Prospects Academy player.
Froment, 16, is among several promising bantam AAA St. Albert graduates breaking into the midget AAA ranks.
“So far it’s been a bit easier than I thought it would be,” Froment said. “When you play with the Prospects it’s kind of the same thing. You’re playing with older guys so I’m coming out with this team playing with older guys again. It’s fun.”
Froment split time between shortstop and the mound against the A’s. The right-hander challenged batters with a variety of fastballs, curveballs and changeups.
“It was an OK game. We didn’t hit well but we played good defence,” said the recipient of the 2013 Baseball Alberta peewee AAA player of the year award.
Froment can also catch if needed.
“I just like playing this game. It’s a fun game,” said the Grade 10 Morinville Community High School student.
Houston described the jump from bantam to midget as “pretty big.”
“Kids are a lot faster and kids throw harder. The competition level is definitely going to be a big adjustment for them but a lot of those kids coming up have played with the Prospects and had the opportunity to play a bunch of games all ready so hopefully they get confidence and we can start rolling a little bit.”
Half of the roster is returning Cardinals, including over-ager Erik Sabrowski, the 2015 Baseball Alberta player of the year in the Norwest league.
Norwest teams are allowed to carry two over-agers but they are ineligible for westerns or nationals.
Sabrowski, a first baseman, pitcher and cleanup hitter, is expected to start the season with the Cardinals before joining the Edmonton Prospects in the Western Major Baseball League and could be available for provincials.
The fourth-year midget AAA Cardinal has committed to Cisco Junior College in Region 5 of the National Junior College Athletic Association.
Sabrowski played a major role in the Cardinals going 24-13 overall in league, provincials and westerns combined last year.
The Cardinals, seeded third at 17-9 in league play as provincials hosts in the eight-team draw, led 8-1 in the final with six outs to go before the Okotoks Black Dawgs roared to win 12-8 with grand slam in the bottom of the seventh to end the game.
At westerns, the final was decided in the bottom of the 11th, when the Parksville (B.C.) Royals knocked in the winning run with the bases loaded to edge the Cardinals 2-1 in Yorkton.
“It was a very surprising season. I didn’t think we would do as well as we did,” Houston said. “I thought the guys worked really hard and definitely came together as a group and put it together at the end of the year, which is probably the most important time to put it together. They did a good job of coming together and battling hard all year and working themselves into position to win.
“We’ll always have a good chance of wining because we’ve got a lot of talent in St. Albert.”
Two years ago, the Cardinals won 47 and lost 16 as provincial champions and Baseball Canada U18 national silver medallists with Houston at the controls.
The 2013 Cardinals won westerns in Winnipeg after losing the provincial final while going 29-13 with CJ Jayasekera as the head coach.
Houston credits “a good group of coaches” that have developed the players into winners as Cardinals.
“It’s also a tribute to the players that we’ve got. They’re kids that want to come out and work hard. A lot of kids do stuff in the winter, which definitely helps our program out because they’re more prepared and more ready to go. There is also a lot of talent in St. Albert and a lot of athletes. It kind of seems like a little hotbed around here of kids who do really well in sports,” said the dugout boss for the 2008 Cardinals that placed sixth at the nationals. “I’ve just been fortunate enough to be here and have these kids part of the program, which definitely has been the main reason for the success of the program.”
