The St. Albert Cardinals celebrated their Baseball Alberta midget AA Tier I championship in style Sunday in Fort Saskatchewan.
In the final, a 5-4 decision against the Olds Spitfires, a line-drive single by Tanner McLean-Poll with two out in the bottom of the seventh scored the winning run for the host team at westerns.
The Cardinals are Nick Arlia, Nate Brisson, Rossi Cammarata, Derrick Dahlseide, Jake Enright, Ben Grabia, Owen Johnson, Mitchell King, Mason Libich, Callum McEwen, John Robbins, Brayden Stasow, Cole Stasow, Robert Sullivan, McLean-Poll, head coach Jason Enright, assistant coach Craig McEwen and manager Wayne Libich.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to see the team picture.
The Gazette will profile the Cardinals, 43-7 overall, leading up westerns, Aug. 13 to 16 at Legion Memorial Park. Westerns also includes the bantam AA and peewee AA divisions.
King started the final and only allowed three hits.
In the last inning, and the score knotted at four, Libich led off with a single and Cole Stasow came in to pitch a run. Stasow stole second and was moved over to third on a sac fly by Brayden Stasow. After an intentional walk to Brisson, who then stole second, King was walked with two out. McLean-Poll smoked the ball into centrefield and sent Cole home to end the game.
In pool A the Cardinals cruised past the North Peace Hurricanes 14-4, Olds 13-4 and Calgary PBF Redbirds 5-1, highlighted by dominating pitching performances by Libich and Brisson.
In the semifinals McLean-Poll racked up 11 strikeouts during a one-hit 7-1 victory over the Leduc Giants.
The St. Albert Cardinals finished the season 33-19 overall after winning the Baseball Alberta bantam AAA Tier II championship Sunday in Okotoks.
The Cardinals defeated SEEBA 4-3 in the final to go 4-0 in the tournament.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the team picture.
SEEBA needed to beat the Cardinals twice for the championship after losing 14-2 to St. Albert in the round robin.
Davis Pratt started the final, which was scoreless through three innings even though the Cardinals had out-hit SEEBA 6-0.
Colton Girard opened the bottom of the fourth with a base hit, followed by another single by Joseph Karall. Logan Blumhagen doubled home both runners and Julien Charron chipped in with an RBI single.
In the sixth, SEEBA pushed two runs across but Logan McKinley shut down the rally.
McKinley closed out the win by striking out the final batter with the tying run on second base.
The Cardinals came out swinging in the tournament lid-lifter to mercy the South Jasper Place Jays 20-6 in five innings as Ryan Marples drove home four runs.
It was 8-6 Cardinals after two innings when the Red Birds tacked up 12 runs in the last three innings.
McKinley threw 2-1/3 innings of perfect relief for the win and Karall closed it out with two strikeouts.
In the next game the Cardinals fell behind 3-1 to Okotoks Dawgs Red, but battled back to score five runs in the fourth and added three more in the fifth to pull away for the 9-3 win.
Tom Leathem kept the game close by fanning six Dawgs before the offence swung into gear.
Cole Ridd sparked the comeback with a huge double into the left-centre field power alley that almost cleared the fence.
Girard banged out three hits and drove in three runs and McKinley had two RBIs and stole three bases.
Karall tossed three innings of no-hit ball while striking out four.
In the last game before the final the Cardinals mercied SEEBA in five innings after counting eight runs in the bottom of the first.
Zach Froment struck-out 10 over five innings.
Marples batted 3-for-3 with three RBIs and Girard, Karall and Evan Bourassa added two hits apiece.
The St. Albert Cardinals Red reached the semifinals at the Baseball Alberta mosquito (10-11) AA Tier I championship at Legion Memorial Park.
The Cardinals finished 2-2 at provincials after Sunday’s 3-2 loss to Sherwood Park Gold. It marked the team’s third semifinal appearance in a tournament.
The Cardinals scored once in the second, when Keenan Parker doubled and reached home on Kaden Pitruniak's RBI single.
The Gold rebounded with three runs on two errors in the third.
The Cardinals added another run in the fourth.
In pool A the Cardinals edged South Jasper Place Black 4-3, downed Spruce Grove 8-6 and lost 10-0 to Red Deer.
The Cardinals were seeded first in the draw after going 6-1 in the provincial round and 19-6 overall.
In the final the Camrose Royals, seeded second, beat the Gold 7-4 after knocking off Red Deer 13-2 in the semifinals.
