The St. Albert Red Cardinals are rising to the challenge as provincial contenders.
The 22nd win in 31 games was Wednesday’s 8-1 convincing performance against the Parkland Twins, last year’s Baseball Alberta Tier 1 midget AAA champions.
“It was one of our best games of the year. We all played pretty well: defence, offence and pitchers,” said Tylor Jans, an overage pitcher/infielder for the 14-3 Cardinals in the Norwest league.
The Cardinals also beat Parkland (13-10) the previous week 4-2 and both games were staged at Legion Memorial Park.
“We put four up pretty early on them in that game and then we kind of let off and we just kind of played even with them,” Jans said. “This time we just kept giving it to them and it ended up with a pretty big lead.”
Parkland scored its lone run in the top of the seventh.
“We had less mistakes and played pretty solid overall. We held them to basically no runs and we scored more,” said Joe Karall, who fired nine strikeouts during a four-hitter over six innings in the first game against Parkland.
“My curve ball was getting most of my outs,” said Karall, who also walked two. “I wanted to get ahead (in the count) and throw strikes. I tried to keep them off base and I was doing pretty well at that.”
Brady Kobitowich recorded the save in the seventh and in the next game against Parkland as the starter tossed a two-hitter during five scoreless innings, with four strikeouts and five walks.
The Cardinals out-hit Parkland 6-5 and both teams committed one error.
Parkland left 12 men on base and four Cardinals were stranded.
Eric Rolheiser singled twice and Liam Froment pushed two runs across during a four-run sixth inning.
Karall and Jans also scored twice in the team’s fourth victory in six Norwest games.
“It’s always important to go out there strong and get as many wins as we can. Every game is just as important as the next one. You’ve got to go out there and win,” said Karall, a third baseman in Wednesday’s lineup.
Jans doubled in the second inning as the designated hitter and scored the opening run with Ryan Marples at the plate.
Jans also returned to the mound since an outing with the Prospects Baseball Academy four months ago and fanned three, walked one and gave up one run on two hits in 1.1 innings before Tom Leathem closed out the win in the seventh.
“I tried doing the best I could do for the first time back out there,” Jans said. “My breaking ball was there. Fastball felt pretty good. Got outs. It felt good.”
Ironically, the last Norwest game Jans pitched in was against Parkland in the 2017 provincial semifinal and his stint lasted 3.1 innings as the starter in the 6-1 loss in St. Albert. He surrendered nine hits and struck out five before Karall entered the game with one out and a runner on base in the fourth and Parkland in front 6-1.
“It went better this time,” said Jans, a Team Alberta pitcher for last year's bronze medallists at the Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg.
This weekend, the Cardinals are in Grande Prairie for three games against the Northern Lights (14-5).
Three weeks ago, the Cardinals dimmed the Lights 10-5 on the strength of a five-run fourth to make it 8-5.
“We came out pretty strong against them and we want to do that again. We want to make sure we get three wins,” Karall said.
The Cardinals also levelled the Lights 12-2 in six innings last month.
“They’re pretty good this year. We’ve just got to pitch well against them,” Jans added. “Earlier in the year when we played them we pitched pretty well and we hit pretty well so if we stick to our game I think we can do pretty good.”
The obvious end goal for the Cardinals is to win provincials for the first time since 2014.
“Everything is starting to come together pretty good. We’re starting to clean up our mistakes. We’re looking pretty solid,” said Karall who is tied with Kobitowich for the team lead in wins with three in the Norwest circuit.
Karall, 17, is also second in strikeouts with 21 in 20.1 innings behind Kobitowich’s 25 in 18.2 innings.
“There's been ups and downs, but I just try and come out there and forget about the last game, just worry about that game and pitch as good as I can and throw strikes, “ said Karall, a Bellerose Composite High School graduate in his third Norwest season.
This year’s Cardinals are oozing with experience with 14 veterans on the 20-man roster and it shows on the diamond.
“We practice as a team like it’s a game and then we go out there and play as hard as we can and try and get the W every day,” said Jans, 18, a fourth-year Norwest player and Bellerose grad.
