The St. Albert Tigers equalled their Sunburst league win total in the senior AAA team’s home tournament.
The Tigers won three out of four games during the successful weekend at the sun-drenched Legion Memorial Park.
“We just want to play solid baseball and make sure we keep everything moving forward and don't slack in any aspect of the game,” said pitcher Craig Tomas, noting some Sunburst losses “Were by one run and that’s just because of one error maybe in the game but overall we’re not making three or four errors a game anymore. We’re making maybe one, maybe two, that's it, so everything is looking good. I’m positive for the rest of the year.”
The Tigers carried a 3-4 (58 RF/59 RA) Sunburst record into the tournament.
“We’ve been in every game. Unfortunately we are what we are but the team is playing well and I’ve got a good feeling we’ll be a contender come playoff time,” said Jessy Beley, a first baseman and power hitter. “The team is playing well. We’ve got some youth and some speed out there which is good so the vets aren’t out there every day grinding away.”
Last year’s Tigers finished league play at 3-15 (62 RF/144 RA) after a 6-13 showing in 2016.
“We’re on the up and up this year. Things are looking positive now. We’ve got a whole bunch of new young guys that know how to play ball and they've all filled in the spots that we’ve been missing for the last four, five years. We’ve got a couple of new pitchers that help relieve a couple of us that have been sticking around for the last few years. We’ve got a staff now,” Tomas said. “We’re hitting the ball, we’re fielding the ball and we’re pitching the ball good. Everything is kind of firing on all cylinders I guess you can say right now.”
The last time The Tigers won provincials as the Sunburst playoff winners was 2007 and since then, the Red Deer Riggers (2017, 2014, 2013, 2010, 2009) and the Fort Saskatchewan Athletics (2008, 2011, 2012), who are now the Sherwood Park Athletics (2015, 2016), qualified for the Baseball Canada championship as the Alberta rep.
The Sunburst circuit, operated by Baseball Alberta, is down to four teams for the second year in a row. The league also consists of the Confederation Park Cubs.
“It seems like all the teams have kind of levelled out now. Red Deer used to be a powerhouse but they kind of took a step down and we took a step up and Sherwood Park and Confed kind of stayed even-keeled,” Tomas said. “Pretty much every game now is a coin flip to see whoever shows up for that game.”
The Sunburst teams were joined by the junior AAA St. Albert Cardinals, midget AAA St. Albert Red Cardinals, Blue Willow Angels, who are the Edmonton Blackhawks in the senior AA North Central league, Calgary Longhorns and midget AAA SEEBA Cardinals in the tournament and despite the threat of weekend thundershowers, all 16 games were played.
“For the Tigers this is something we look forward to every year. We put a lot of hard work and time into it and to have Mother Nature agree with us this year we’re happy,” Beley said of the tournament that has been rained out eight times since 1998.
“The Tigers’ tournament is good for the team, it’s a good fundraiser and it’s good for the City of St. Albert and for baseball fans,” Beley added. “St. Albert is such a good sports town and we’ve got such a good minor league system and credit to Millsy (Kurtus Millar) and the job he does with SAMBA. I want to see baseball keep going because it’s a sport on the rise. We’ve got a lot of young kids here and it’s great for this tournament. We’ve got our junior team and midget team here and those kids can see the quality of ball. It’s senior men's AAA baseball and it’s very good.”
The Tigers, Athletics and Cubs placed first in their respective pools with 2-0 records and in Sunday’s playoff round the Tabbies lost 6-3 to the Athletics and edged the Cubs 3-2 with a walk-off ground rule double. The Athletics also fell 4-2 to the Cubs.
A run formula was used to determine the finalists as the Athletics repeated by defeating the Cubs 11-3 in the final.
The tournament also marked the second half of the season for the new and improved Tigers.
“Winning boosts morale, you have some more confidence, but either way, win or lose, I think we’ll be feeling pretty good when we get back into the season,” said right-fielder Conor Bronson, who played four years with the midget AAA Cardinals before hooking up with the Tigers this season. “It’s a lot of fun. They’re a little older but a great group of guys. They like to have fun when they play. They don't take it too serious but play hard and compete and try and win every game."
The level of competition in the Sunburst “is pretty good. Every team has some dudes that can throw, probably shut you down, but you hopefully got to be better than their best arms,” said Bronson, 19.
As for the Tigers, “We’ve done pretty well. We’ve had a couple of close games, a couple of bad bounces, but other than that we’ve played pretty well. Can’t complain too much,” Bronson said. “Offensively we hit pretty well almost every game. I don’t think we’ve been shut out yet. We score a lot of runs and our pitchers usually back us.”
The last Sunburst game before the tournament was the roller-coaster 15-14 loss in extra innings to the Cubs on June 18 at John Fry Park.
Bronson collected five hits, Tomas pitched four innings as the starter and Beley was the third and last pitcher for the Tigers, who blew two big leads.
“I toed the bump for the first time in a long time and it didn't go as well as we expected but that game shows the heart that we have,” Beley said. “The team played great. Everyone hit and we put runs on the board. Unfortunately we ran out of arms.”
The tournament opener for the Tigers was 6-4 against the Calgary Longhorns as Bronson got the party started by clubbing a fastball early in the count over the fence in the first inning to knot it at one.
Tomas gutted out a complete-game victory.
“Offence, defence we played well. Craig pitched his ass off and when you do that we’ll win most games,” said Bronson, a Bellerose Composite High School graduate.
Tomas also tossed a one-hit gem over seven innings in the 5-2 decision against the Athletics on June 13 at Centennial Park. Beley and Jordan Bilodeau drove in two runs apiece and Ty Wagar closed out the win in relief.
Tomas credits Beley for teaching him a new pitch that's proven to be effective.
“I had a different change-up before and he showed me a basic change-up a couple of weeks ago and it's been working. In my first game that I used it, I took a no hitter through six innings against Sherwood Park and that's probably my highlight this year so far,” said Tomas, one of the longest-serving Tigers and the team’s most reliable pitcher. “I’ve never been the hardest thrower so I’ve kind of been teaching myself how to pitch and not just try and throw the ball across the plate but putting the ball where you want to put it, right off the plate, up, and down and away, that kind of stuff and not just be a chucker.”
Tomas, 36, is a baseball lifer in the St. Albert baseball scene ever since playing T-ball at age four and will forever be a Tiger through thick and thin.
“It’s just the competitive level, the compete in me, the compete in the game and the love of the game but most importantly it’s the group of guys that I play with. That's probably the big main thing and the main incentive. They've been there for me through some hard times and good times, and they’re my best friends off the diamond, too. There is nothing better than being out in the sun with a couple of beers with your best friends and friends in baseball,” Tomas said.
The last pool game for the Tigers was Saturday’s 6-2 result against the junior AAA Cardinals as Mat Brisson, another former midget AAA Cardinal, went the distance.
“It was a gritty performance by both teams. Our pitcher threw well. Their starting pitcher threw good ball and they had some very grinding at bats. They battled and we did as well. We just put some pressure on them and we scored some runs,” said Beley, 30, a Tiger for 12 seasons. “That’s a good team and those are the future Tigers that we want to see on our team.”
The next Sunburst game is 7 p.m. tonight against the Athletics at Centennial Park.
