The big winner of the St. Albert Tigers Tournament was the host team despite not making Sunday’s final.
Unlike last year when the tournament was rained out for the eighth time since 1991, this past weekend was a bonanza for baseball fans that flocked to Legion Memorial Park to cheer on the boys of summer from the stands and the standing-room only beer gardens.
“This weekend was great. We had a little freak storm that kind of delayed things a little bit (Saturday) but that’s better than it being rained out completely all together,” said Brad Wolansky, coach of the senior AAA Tigers in the Sunburst Baseball League and the Baseball Alberta program and communications coordinator.
Last year’s tournament was cancelled before the first pitch was thrown because of a massive downpour on the eve of Friday’s opening game.
There were also three consecutive rainouts from 2011 to 2013.
“It was really good to have a weekend of baseball for our team,” said Wolansky of the second year in a row the Tigers had moved back their annual tournament to the traditional month of June to attract more teams after experimenting with July dates in recent years.
The Tigers finished 1-2 in the Waples division and joined the rest of the spectators in watching the Sunburst league’s Sherwood Park Athletics, the reigning senior AAA provincial champions, beat the Blue Willow Angels, which are the Edmonton Blackhawks of the North Central Alberta Baseball League, 13-2 in the final.
Friday the Tigers pulled off an exciting 7-6 walk-off win against the Calgary Longhorns and Saturday’s 4-0 rain-shortened loss to Blue Willow was followed by the late-night 10-6 victory against the midget AAA St. Albert Cardinals that ended at roughly 10:45 p.m.
“It was good and not so good,” Wolansky said of the team’s performance. “It was up and down but over the last little while we’ve been actually going quite a bit on the upscale. We’ve been playing good baseball and getting back to where we used to be a few years ago for sure.”
Nathan Coffin’s clutch two-run single in the bottom of the seventh capped off a riveting comeback against Calgary as the Tigers rallied in support of their starting pitcher, Craig Tomas.
“It was a big game for us emotionally just because of some team things and it was good to see that we pulled out a win,” Wolansky said. “It was a great time for all of our players and it really brought us together.”
The next day the Tigers trailed 4-0 against Blue Willow when a rainstorm swept through St. Albert. Organizers called it a game in order to ensure the rest of the tournament schedule would stay somewhat on track despite the rain delay.
“It was a little tough and not a great effort I would say,” Wolansky said of the loss to the 5-2 senior AA team in the NCABL circuit.
However, the Tigers showed their stripes against the midget AAA Cardinals as Dan Curtis slugged a three-run homer to put the Tigers on top 5-4, en route to the 10-6 decision under the lights. Mat Brisson, a former midget AAA Red Bird, started and Matt Rindero recorded the save.
“We came ready to play against the midget AAAs and we put together a really good game,” Wolansky said.
In league play, the Tigers are 2-6 when they host Sherwood Park (3-4) Friday at 7 p.m.
“We started slow. The early season schedule was so sporadic that with rainouts and stuff we don’t get a ton of practice time. We do what we can but it’s really hard to get into a rhythm of a game and playing well,” Wolansky said. “It’s adult baseball and some of the guys can’t make it all the time because they have other things to do so we haven’t had our full team out yet but it’s really going to help once those guys actually do come back and are able to contribute to the level they can.”
Two weeks ago, the Tigers posted wins on consecutive nights of 7-5 in Sherwood Park and 7-4 against the Confederation Park Cubs (5-5) in St. Albert.
The Red Deer Riggers (7-2) are first overall in the four-team standings.
“We’re looking like a good team again and it’s good to see that we’re playing hard. We’re competitive in every game and we’re putting together a good streak here of playing well,” said Wolansky, 36, a catcher by trade during his long association with the Tigers. “We’ve got three tournaments in July so there will be lots of at-bats for guys and that’s when you really start to find your rhythm and hopefully things keep going in the upward direction.”
Last year the Tigers (6-13) finished fourth in the five-team league and lost the best-of-three semifinal to first-place Red Deer (18-1) by scores of 10-2 in Red Deer and 9-5 in St. Albert.
Sherwood Park defended its league title as the Alberta rep at the Baseball Canada senior AAA championship knocked off Red Deer in the final.
The Tigers haven’t won provincials since 2007.
Sherwood Park also defeated Red Deer in the tournament’s Young division with an extra-inning walk-off result.
