The tournament may have ended with a douse of rain but two St. Albert teams came close to getting the first worm at this year's Early Bird Tournament.
In the Bantam AAA side of the draw, the Cardinals managed to win their first game 7-1 but weren't able to capitalize in their second outing, falling 9-2 to a visiting Red Deer Braves squad. Though it's still early in the season, the draw gave St. Albert coaches the perfect chance to see their team's strengths and weaknesses.
"It's early in the season but I thought our pitching was pretty consistent the whole weekend," said Cardinals head coach Dave Maguire. "We are battling a few arm injuries such as tired arms and whatever because it's early in the season. However, our pitching was outstanding and we hit the ball very well."
With the record strong enough to qualify for Sunday's semi-finals, the Cardinals once again took the field against Red Deer. While the game was a lot tighter the second time around, the game still fell in the Braves' favour with an 8-7 score after an extra inning. Though the team's chance at a gold in their first tournament of the year was extinguished, Maguire is confident his players have great potential.
"It's a younger team than the one I had last year but we're improving every week and that's what it's really all about. So, eventually, we will be at our best near the end of July when provincials happen," said Maguire.
Peewee AAA
In the Peewee AAA draw, the Cardinals were once again able to qualify for the tournament's semi-finals, but came up short, this time 12-9 to Lloydminster. It was a grudge rematch of the previous round robin game against the border city squad, which ended up tied 14-14.
These results, combined with the team's opening 9-3 win against Spruce Grove, allowed Cardinal's head coach Mark Brisson the chance to evaluate players.
"They call it the Early Bird for a reason and it's a great opportunity to evaluate the kids in different positions. We had great pitching all weekend and had a few balls that found holes at the right time," said Brisson. "We hit well but we have to work on getting our positioning, which is where you are at this time of year every year."
When it comes to the rest of the season, the Early Bird gave all the coaches the perfect chance to scout the rest of the competition for the remainder of the year. In the Cardinals' case, it showed the true toughness of a very strong division this year.
"We have a very competitive division this year. I don't see one team running away with anything, which is great to see. Lloydminster has some very strong hitters and some big players so they will be a good team," said Brisson.
FOUL BALLS: Monday's gold medal games were all cancelled due to the weather. The winners of each category affected by the cancellation will be chosen based on head-to-head statistics. Final positioning information will be made available on www.stalbertbaseball.com.
