The St. Albert Cardinals Red mosquito AA team finished the season as the Baseball Alberta Tier I champion.
The Cardinals overcame a tournament-opening 7-2 loss to the South Jasper Place Jays to beat the Edmonton team 8-7 in Sunday’s final in Camrose.
Keenan Parker was named the tournament MVP.
The Cardinals, seeded second in the six-team draw, knocked off the Red Deer Braves in pool play before downing the Parkland Twins 8-0 in the semifinals.
The peewee AAA St. Albert Cardinals are up to bat at the U13 western championship in Saskatoon.
The Cardinals and Parkland Twins are the Alberta reps in the eight-team draw.
The Cardinals won the third-place playoff at the Baseball Alberta Tier I championship, 11-10 over the Red Deer Braves, and Parkland lost the final to the Calgary Cubs 21-10.
The Swift Current Indians, Saskatoon Blitz, Sask Five Giants, Abbotsford Angels, North Winnipeg and South (MB) Central also qualified for westerns.
Visit www.wcbaseball.ca for results.
A new champion will be crowned in the Alberta West Central Baseball Association after the St. Albert Senior (50-plus) Cardinals were eliminated in the best-of-three semifinals.
After last week’s three-run setback to the host Westlock Red Lions, the Cardinals pulled even in the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader at Legion Memorial Park with a 7-4 decision but lost the deciding contest 10-0.
Curling star Nolan Thiessen was strong on the mound in game two and at the plate he doubled twice while driving in three runs.
Bryan Doyle also continued his hot hitting in the series with an important RBI with a sacrifice fly in the fifth.
However, some untimely errors put the Cardinals in a deep hole in game three and the bats were unable to dig out the home team.
In league play the Cardinals (9-6) and Westlock (10-7) finished second and third, respectively, in the eight-team standings.
Last year the Cardinals defeated first-place Westlock in the third and deciding game in the final for the Lloyd Marklinger Memorial Trophy for an overall 14-7-1 record in league and playoffs combined.
The St. Albert Tigers were swept away by the Red Deer Riggers in the Sunburst Baseball League senior AAA provincial playoffs last week.
The Tigers lost the best-of-three semifinal by scores of 10-2 in Red Deer and 9-5 in St. Albert.
The Tigers (6-13) placed fourth in the five-team standings and the Riggers (18-1) finished first.
The winner between the Riggers and Sherwood Park Athletics (15-5) in the best-of-five final will represent Alberta at the 2017 Baseball Canada senior AAA championship.
The Athletes are the defending provincial champions.
The Tigers haven’t won provincials since 2007 and the closest they came to competing for a trip to nationals was 2011, when a tournament decided the Alberta champion instead of the current Sunburst playoff format.
