Is this the year the St. Albert Tigers show their stripes in the Sunburst Baseball League?
The senior AAA team hasn’t won provincials since 2007 and since then has struggled to represent Alberta at nationals, whether it was a tournament to decide the champion or the current Sunburst playoff format.
However, as the Tigers gathered Wednesday to practice at Legion Memorial Park there was a noticeable spring in their steps with the season opener right around the corner.
“We’re coming out with higher expectations than normal,” said 34-year-old pitcher Craig Tomas, ace of the staff last year with five wins and a league-high 47 strikeouts.
“We’ve got some new players. We’ve even got a full pitching staff. We went from two to 12 all of a sudden. The pitchers will have a little rest and relaxation between starts now with all of our pitchers,” Tomas explained. “We’re getting younger now actually. We’ve got some young blood coming in finally.”
The Tigers were a middle of the pack team last year at 9-10-1 and were swept by the Sherwood Park Athletics in the best-of-three semifinal.
Tomas summed up the season as “not bad.”
“We made it to the playoffs and battled. We had a couple of tough luck losses,” he said. “They’re a strong team but I feel we can compete with any team in the league this year that’s for sure, especially coming off last year. We battled every game so we’re pretty optimistic this year that good things are going to happen.”
The Athletics, formerly the Fort Saskatchewan A’s, beat the Red Deer Riggers in the fifth and deciding game in the Sunburst final for a trip to this year’s nationals.
The Athletics and Red Deer have celebrated four provincial championships apiece since the 2007 Tigers.
The Confederation Park Cubs and Parkland White Sox round out the long-running senior AAA circuit.
Red Deer (13-7) and the Athletics (12-8) finished ahead of the Tigers, who placed fourth in 2014 at 6-14 and tied for third in 2013 at 7-9.
“The league gets stronger every year. It’s only five teams but all five teams have mostly collegiate players or ex-college players,” Tomas said. “Red Deer keeps getting younger and better. (The Athletics) got strong hitters and they’ve got a couple of the top pitchers in the league still. Confed always battles every game, the same with Parkland, so with all five teams it’s just whoever comes out on top I guess.”
The team’s mainstays are St. Albert Minor Baseball Association graduates who played for the now-defunct junior AAA Tigers.
“The core of the guys have been on the team for about 13 years,” said Tomas, a former midget AAA Cardinal and junior Tiger. “Through all the years we’ve played together every summer for the last 20 years and we’re all best friends here. New guys that join the team they kind of get the vibe that we dish out between all the vets. They catch on pretty quick and join the camaraderie that we have on the team.”
The Tigers were led offensively last year by Jessy Beley. The veteran slugger was among the Sunburst leaders with a .422 batting average, .509 on-base percentage, .735 slugging percentage and four home runs.
Evan Hoffman, the Sunburst first team all-star right fielder, was the team leader in RBIs (14) and stolen bases (six). He also homered twice and singled 14 times.
Kyle Hesse led the Tigers in singles (15) and John McHugh was second on the team in slugging percentage (.574).
Tomas was a workhorse on the mound while logging 71 innings. The next closest pitcher was Davin Gulbransen’s 48.2 innings for Red Deer.
“I was kind of happy to see all these new faces out. We got 12 pitchers now so it’s going to be a little easier on myself personally because the last two, three years I’ve been throwing every second game almost and starting. We didn’t have many guys on the bench to come in in relief so it kind of pushed myself to go an extra inning or two,” said the right-hander.
His 47 strikeouts were one more than Dustin Northcott of Red Deer and the five wins tied for the Sunburst league with Conor Whitely of the Athletics.
“My arm held up all year,” said the electrician by trade when he’s not shaving the corners of the plate. “I’m still throwing decently hard for the league. Overall I’m not a strikeout guy but I get my outs and the defence is still playing solid behind me.
“I have maybe one or two bad innings every odd game, a lapse every now and then, but that’s kind of normal.”
Tomas plans to expand his pitch selection to keep batters on their toes.
“I’m trying to incorporate a new pitch in my repertoire this year to help me out. As I get older I’ve got to start throwing more pitches to try and trick these guys in the league to get outs easier for myself,” said the former second baseman who recently hung up his glove to stay fresh between outings and now helps coach third base.
FOUL BALLS: The Tigers are up to bat May 6 against the Parkland White Sox at 6:45 p.m. at Henry Singer Park in Spruce Grove.
The home opener is May 13 against Parkland at 7 p.m.
An exhibition between the Tigers and midget AAA St. Albert Cardinals is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday at Legion park.
The Tigers have moved back their annual tournament to the traditional month of June after experimenting with July dates in recent years. The decision to run it June 24 to 26 will hopefully attract more teams. The goal is to field eight teams this year.
