The peewee AAA St. Albert Cardinals extended their season with a trip to westerns in Monday's walk-off victory.
The third-place playoff in the Baseball Alberta Tier I championship determined the second team for the U13 tournament next week at Spruce Grove.
"It's huge. I couldn't stand ending the season on a loss. That would've been terrible," said Samson Edwards, the player of the game for the Cardinals as the starting pitcher in the 8-7 decision against the Red Deer Braves at Legion Memorial Park.
The Cardinals battled back from a four-run deficit to even the score in the sixth and the next inning Max Hartman trotted home from third on a balk to cap off the 8-7 comeback.
"This team never ceases to surprise me," said Ashley Roy, head coach of the 27-14 Cardinals. "It was a 12-man unit that won this game and that's what we need."
Joining the Cardinals at westerns are the Camrose Cougars, provincial finalists after losing the championship game to the Okotoks Dawgs, the Alberta reps at the nationals starting Aug. 24 at Repentigny, Quebec.
"I was there at westerns last year (at Saskatoon) with peewee AAA and it's a fun experience. You get to be with your teammates more and you play some more ball which we love," Hartman said.
"We're definitely going to go in positive," added Edwards. "We're going to pitch our best, tighten down on the defence, get on the sticks and hopefully we do good."
The Cardinals finished 3-2 at provincials after going 20-10 for fifth place in the Baseball Alberta league.
"We were just really good and constant throughout the entire way through. We rallied as a team in tough games and even though we lost some they were still good ball games to be in and we still played the best we could," Hartman said.
Wins of 14-11 against the Sherwood Park A's (22-9) and 10-8 against Red Deer (20-11) were followed by losses of 13-6 to Okotoks (24-7) and 9-3 to Camrose (24-9) in the round robin.
"We got out to two great wins and Jack (Hudson) and Carter (Roy) pitched gems," Roy said. "We were in a great position against Okotoks. We had the lineup and the pitching staff that we wanted but we had some untimely errors that cost us that game and then we ran into a very hot Camrose team.
"To come into this game with not our top four pitchers available it was gritty effort by the kids. They stuck together."
The Cardinals rose to the challenge with a spot at westerns on the line after falling short of going to the final.
"The first game we lost (to Okotoks) we didn't play very bad, they just beat us. They were the better team," Edwards said. "I think we were kind of down for the second game so that might be part of the reason why we didn't win that one.
"Today we just had to forget about that loss. It was a new day and a new game."
Hartman, 13, agreed. "The coach's message was just forget about that game and get the next game and let's go to westerns and just play more ball. Let's do everything at our best and try as hard as we can," said the Grade 8 Richard S. Fowler student.
The third-place tilt turned out to be the best of the bunch.
"We rallied together when we were down. It was exciting to have the chances that we did and the guys came through," Hartman said.
The playoff was knotted at three before Camrose pulled ahead at 7-3 entering the bottom of six.
"It was an emotional rollercoaster. It was up at one point and then the next point you were down and then you just had to keep it kind of evenly paced," said Edwards, 13.
Luke Buchanan's single in the sixth got the Cardinals rolling and Carter Roy, Cameron Bergstrom, Keenan Parker and Logan Kowaluk knocked in runs.
The highlight was Bergstrom's textbook bunt on a suicide squeeze play to bring home a run.
"We really needed those runs or else I don't think we could've came back in the seventh because we wouldn't have had the energy and determination for it," Edwards said.
The Cardinals got hot at the right time, according to Hartman.
"The sticks were cold early and then we got a lot of runs to tie the game and then pitching just took it from there," said the third baseman/centrefielder.
Bergstrom was strong in relief while striking out three of the five batters he faced, including the last hitter for the third out in the top of six.
In the seventh, a diving catch by Parker produced the first out and Bergstrom's second strikeout of the inning left a runner stranded on base.
Hartman led-off the bottom of the seventh by jumping on the first pitch.
"It was sort of an outside fastball on the bottom corner," said Hartman, who beat out the throw to first after the ball was bobbled by the shortstop. "It's always a good start to an inning to get the first person on and we have confidence in our team to score that run from first base. We just know when the lead-off guy is on we're scoring."
On the next pitch, Hartman stole second and later advanced to third on Ethan Revells' fly-ball out.
A walk to Buchanan put Cardinals on the corners with one out and with Rowan Simmington-Lesanko at the plate Red Deer attempted to load the bases but a balk was called and Hartman scored.
"That's a hard way to lose a game for them but it's a win for us and that's all that counts," said Hartman, who was mobbed by teammates as he crossed home plate.
"We were ecstatic. We were just screaming and dancing," said Edwards, a Grade 8 W.D. Cuts School student.
