The St. Albert Cardinals were crowned Baseball Alberta mosquito tier I champions Sunday in Red Deer.
The Cardinals are Michael Brisson, Julien Charron, Colton Girard, Taron Haggith, Kelton Libich, Ryan Marples, Rhys Mazur, Davis Pratt, Cole Ridd, Austin Sorensen and Joey Whelan. Field manager is Darren Pratt and assistant coaches are Darren Mazur and Gil Girard.
“It was a great win for our team and for the organization,” said coach Pratt.
In the final Marples, a first-year mosquito, twirled a complete game, 72-pitch gem in leading the Cardinals to a 7-1 victory against Sherwood Park Gold.
Two separate two-out rallies also put the Cardinals on top, with key hits by Brisson and Haggith stoking the offence. Girard and Libich also came up big at the plate, with two doubles and three RBIs apiece.
The team’s heavy-hitting line-up was complemented by error-free defence lead by Mazur. The shortstop and captain of the Cardinals put a halt to Sherwood Park’s aggressive base running with acrobatic and critical putouts at second base.
“It was a complete team win as everyone contributed both at the plate and in the field,” said coach Pratt.
In the round robin draw the Cardinals blanked the Spruce Grove White Sox 10-0, crushed the Fort McMurray Oil Giants 23-5, lost 7-0 to Sherwood Park and doubled the Red Deer Braves 8-4. Pratt and Ridd outpitched Red Deer ace Zach Baker in the game that determined who would play Sherwood Park in the final.
The provincial weekend didn’t go as planned for the St. Albert Cardinals at the peewee performance championship in Red Deer.
In the tournament opener Friday the Cardinals lost 13-3 to Sherwood Park. They led by three runs after two innings and had Sherwood Park on its heels before a hailstorm blew through. After a two-hour rain delay, play resumed and after one bad inning the game got away from the Cardinals.
The Cardinals’ only win at provincials was Saturday’s 10-0 shutout of SEEBA, the number-one ranked team in the division. Jakob Brinkhof tossed a three-hitter during a 63-pitch effort over five winnings. First baseman James Robillard and second baseman Nate Brisson combined for nine defensive outs.
Saturday’s second game was the 15-5 setback against the Red Deer Braves in which the host team hit the ball and the Cardinals didn’t.
The last game was Sunday’s 8-5 loss to the Spruce Grove White Sox. The Cardinals were already eliminated from the playoff picture so they went with an all first-year player infield. Two players were also injured and were unavailable.
“All in all it was a good season. We improved as we moved through the season and prior to entering the provincial tournament the coaches were very optimistic that we could win it, but could not close on a couple of opportunities,” said field manager Mark Brisson. “I was very lucky this year to have a great coaching staff to support the development of the players and many of the second year players are in very good shape to compete for a spot on the bantam triple-A team next year.”
The St. Albert Senior Cardinals are hosting the Alberta West Central Baseball Association playoffs, starting Saturday at 9 a.m. at Legion Memorial Park.
All eight teams in the league will compete. The draw consists of 10 games. The Cardinals are expected to be seeded first or second after going 12-5 this year. Some of the teams still had to finish off their schedule leading up to the playoffs.
The finals are set for Sunday at noon (B championship) and 3 p.m. (A championship). The Cardinals are the defending B champs.
On tap next weekend is the Cardinals’ annual tournament at Legion park.
The St. Albert Tigers will play the underdog role at the Baseball Alberta senior AAA championship this weekend at Fort Saskatchewan.
The Tigers carry a losing record into the five-team provincial draw. Their first game is 9 a.m. against the host Athletics. The Tigers are 0-6 against the 2009 national champions and last year’s provincial finalists.
In the Sunburst Baseball League the Athletics (14-1) finished first and the Tigers (5-9) placed fourth out of five teams.
Last week the Athletics tamed the Tigers 6-2 and 7-3 in the Sunburst best-of-three semifinal.
“The boys played OK, but really need to step it up this weekend,” said Tigers’ field manager Kurtus Millar.
The Tigers also play the Red Deer Riggers at 3 p.m. Friday. Two of the Tigers’ five wins in Sunburst action were against the Riggers (7-7), the 2010 provincial champions.
On Saturday the Tigers have games against the Red Deer Stags (9-6) at noon and the Parkland White Sox (14-4), the top team in the North Central Alberta Baseball League, at 6 p.m.
If there are no tiebreakers the final goes at 3 p.m. Sunday.
