On a cold and windy Thursday night, the St. Albert Cardinals walked away with another victory on their quest to crack the top of the league standings.
The Midget AAA squad toppled the Red Deer Braves with a final score of 8-4. The red birds were coming off a loss against the Edmonton Cardinals 2 and were hoping to turn things around going in to a busy weekend.
The game was deadlocked in the first three innings with both squads’ pitchers throwing plenty of strikes and keeping the batters at bay. The game opened up in the top of the fourth, when St. Albert made some mistakes in the field and allowed the opponents to take a three-run lead.
“We just ran into a little bit of trouble and misplayed a couple of balls in the outfield,” coach Sean Erikson said. “The pitcher settled in and got us through the inning and gave us a chance to come back.”
The home team fought back at the plate and answered with five runs of their own. Erik Sabrowski got the insurance run, when he took a swing for the fences and launched the ball out of the park for the game’s only home run.
“We got simple and tried to hit the ball hard on the ground,” Erikson said. “We got a few good hits for the infield and then Erik popped that home run and put us up one to give us that cushion run. That was big. “
Between the pitches, the red birds gained more momentum by taking advantage of bad plays and stole bases from the unprepared opposition. Anthony Owen took a considerable lead off first, and when the Braves tried to catch him in a pickle, he outran the infielders for a safe arrival on second. The home team continued to apply pressure and managed to steal home plate twice in one inning by capitalizing on field errors to jump further ahead on the scoreboard.
“We pride ourselves on our base running,” Erikson said. “It’s definitely one of our goals every day to get extra bases and take advantage of anyone who is being lazy out there. It’s something we used to great effect and it jumpstarts our hitters too. It’s amazing how much momentum taking a base on a bad throw can give the team.”
A pitching change was made for the final inning that put Mathieu Brisson on the mound where he struck out every batter he faced and secured the 8-4 victory for the home team.
The Cardinals were coming off a busy stretch after having participated in the senior men’s Tigers tournament over the weekend. Although they didn’t win the whole thing, they came away with a few wins and more confidence when facing guys their age.
“It was good to handle some of that pitching and then be able to get back out here,” Erikson said. “It makes everything seem a little bit easier.”
The Cardinals are going into a busy weekend, playing six games in the next three days at Legion Memorial Park to close out the schedule. They have not lost a game at home this season and are hoping to uphold that record over the weekend.
