A player and coach in the St. Albert Minor Baseball Association were honoured at the recent Baseball Alberta awards banquet.
Michael Brisson was recognized as the mosquito AA player of the year (there is no mosquito AAA division) and Dave Maguire was the recipient of the Ted Rudd Coach of the Year Award.
Brisson was one of two returning Cardinals to repeat as mosquito competitive Tier I champions. In the provincial final Brisson started on the mound and allowed one run on three hits while throwing 77 pitches over 4-2/3 innings in the 11-1 victory over the Red Deer Braves. It was the 33rd win in 34 games for the Cardinals.
Maguire guided the bantam AAA Cardinals to a third-place finish at the performance Tier I provincials and the semifinal round at westerns. The Cardinals finished 39-12 overall after going 22-12 in 2011 with Maguire at the controls.
The St. Albert Merchants can bank their sixth win in a row Friday against the Leduc Riggers in the Capital Junior B Hockey League.
Game time is 7:45 p.m. in Leduc.
The Merchants (11-6-2) are third in the west division and Leduc (6-11-3) is sixth in the east standings.
Last weekend the Merchants edged the Stony Plain Flyers 3-2 and defeated the North Edmonton Red Wings 8-5 in a penalty-filled affair at Akinsdale Arena.
Jared Kwasney, Ryan Harrison and Blair Maluch scored against the Flyers (2-17) in Stony Plain. In net was Justin Pawlenchuk.
Alex Hawirko fired three of his four goals against the Red Wings (8-8) in the first period, including a pair on the power play. It was 4-4 after the first and 6-5 Merchants after two periods.
Muluch, A.J. Yariwon, Matt Bowles and Jamie Umbach notched singles. Harrison and Casey Reid had two assists apiece. Max Cathcart and Pawlenchuk shared netminding duties.
The St. Albert Blitz U10 novice ringette team returned home from Medicine Hat with gold medals.
Last weekend at the Ed Horvath Interprovincial Classic Ringette Tournament the Blitz finished 5-1 in the 10-team draw.
In the final against the Calgary Her Icanes the Blitz led 6-3 after the first period en route to the 12-8 victory.
In pool play the Blitz lost 6-5 to the Her Icanes.
The Blitz advanced to the final with a 3-1 record in their pool and in the semifinals doubled the Calgary Nerds 10-5.
The Nerds and Her Icanes were undefeated in their respective pools.
The gold medal was the second in as many tournament for the Blitz. At the 14th annual St. Albert Turkey Ring the Blitz finished undefeated.
The Blitz are 11-1 in tournament play and 6-1 in the Black Gold League.
