The view from the top of the mountain was breathtaking for St. Albert Cardinals Red as the U18 midget AA western champion.
“It’s unbelievable,” declared Jason Enright, head coach of the 50-6-1 Cardinals, during the post-game celebration after the 5-3 victory over the Oak Park Bearcats of Manitoba in Sunday’s final at Legion Memorial Park.
“Every year we set a goal of where we want to be at the end of the year, like climbing a mountain, and every tournament is a step up and then ultimately westerns being the end of the top of the mountain,” said Enright of the aspirations of the two-time defending Baseball Alberta Tier I champions from the St. Albert Minor Baseball Association.
“We knew we were hosting again but we obviously wanted to win our way in, which we have two years in a row. Last year against the same Oak River team we came up a little short. This year we refocused and we came out hard and we came to play and today we played arguably our best game in three years all around so it was awesome.”
Enright described the feeling of winning gold after settling for silver last year as pure euphoria.
“We were prepared today for this moment. When we needed to shine our players came through with a full team effort and played unbelievable,” he said. “Myself and (assistant coach) Craig McEwen have coached three years in this program and that last picture we took (as a championship team) there are nine boys we’ve had for three years and it was a great journey that we had and I can’t be happier for them and SAMBA. It’s been a long time since we’ve had an AA team win at westerns and to know that these guys worked hard to get it and to get it at home is just unbelievable.”
Last year the Cardinals finished 46-9 overall while going 3-2 at westerns and both losses were against the Bearcats: 12-5 in the round robin and 7-1 in the final.
This year the Bearcats, with nine returning players on the roster and seven in their last year of midget, mercied the Cardinals 11-0 Friday, but in the championship rematch the Red Birds led 3-1 after four innings and added two runs in the top of the seventh to go up by four.
“Last year at the beginning of the game we made an error in the first inning and we could see it kind of rattled us and they kind of fed off that emotion (for leads of 1-0 after the first and 3-0 after the third). This year we came better prepared and as soon the game was on the light switch was on and we were 100 per cent right through to the bitter end.”
In the bottom of the fourth the Bearcats loaded the bases and with two outs Koby Adams, the player of the game for the Cardinals, relieved starter Eric Pankiw and the second pitch by the pickup from the Barrhead Orioles was a grounder for the third out.
“To get out after four innings and only giving up one run was huge. We knew with that team once they get one they kind of start to roll,” Enright said. “Eric on the mound was really good. He just threw lots of strikes and our defence made every play and that’s what we hoped for and expected.”
The Cardinals opened the tournament by doubling the North Battleford Beavers 10-5 Friday.
“We got right down to business; go in, get the win and see how the weekend unfolded,” said catcher/shortstop Nick Arlia.
The next game was the shutout loss to the Bearcats.
“Our defence was a little bit down but our offence wasn’t there. Our batters had a bit of trouble,” Arlia said.
The loss left the Cardinals in two must-win games for the second year in a row to close out the round robin after going 1-1 on the opening day. The players responded with scores of 7-4 Saturday against the Lacombe Dodgers, (the Cardinals mercied Lacombe 12-2 in the provincial final), and 16-3 in five innings Sunday against the Kamloops River Dogs (the Cardinals blanked Kamloops 5-0 last month, en route to winning the Valley of Champions tournament in Kelowna).
“I’ve never seen our team come out and hit as well as we did that game. When you put up 16 runs in a western tournament it’s pretty hard to do because the teams are pretty good,” Enright said. “The great thing about this team is that all throughout the lineup we’ve got guys who can do damage.”
Arlia, 18, swung a big bat in support of starting pitcher Dylan Wood, a pickup from the Leduc Giants, with a big three-run homer in the bottom of the first after Kamloops opened the scoring.
“It was a fastball inside and I just pulled it,” Arlia said of his third homer of the season and the only dinger at westerns for the Cardinals. “It was a big hit so I was happy.”
Arlia also doubled home two runs in the third to make it 6-1 and the next inning his two-run double increased the lead to 11-3 as the Cardinals racked up nine runs.
“I was just trying to perform for the team and go out there and do the best I can for them,” Arlia said of his seven RBIs. “It was just my stance in the box and getting around on the ball. The pitches I liked I took advantage of them and hit them.”
Arlia suggested there was less pressure on the Cardinals against Kamloops with a berth in the final on the line, than against Lacombe, highlighted by a strong pitching outing by captain Nate Brisson.
“We felt more loose because we put up a lot of runs against Lacombe and our offence just came from there and we brought it,” said Arlia, one of the many third-year players on the Cardinals.
“This team is like a family. We’re all brothers. We all get along. It’s fun.”
The Cardinals have five players eligible to return next year, plus two over-agers from the nine graduates.
“I will miss all these kids when they move on but this is a period in my life that I will never forget. These guys made it special for the last couple of years. We’ll have one celebration to reminisce tonight, but to see how they’ve matured over the last coupe of years and how they’re leaving this program is just unbelievable. They went out on top of the mountain,” Enright said.
