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Bantams win big

The bantam AAA St. Albert Cardinals knew they had to avoid a letdown after a big win and did just that. The Red Birds were coming off a mammoth 21-run victory when they met the Sherwood Park Green Athletics on Wednesday at Legion Memorial Park.

The bantam AAA St. Albert Cardinals knew they had to avoid a letdown after a big win and did just that.

The Red Birds were coming off a mammoth 21-run victory when they met the Sherwood Park Green Athletics on Wednesday at Legion Memorial Park. The team managed to win that game too by a score of 11-6. Their third straight win improved the team's record to 12-2, not counting tournaments or exhibition games.

"We hit pretty well. We had good focus for the starting few and last few innings, but then we just had a little mental lapse in the middle," said third-baseman Cam Vilcsak, 14. "We just need to keep it up throughout the whole game and we'll be doing good."

The night before, also at home, the Cardinals scored the most runs they have tallied all year in a 22-1 rout over their competition from Spruce Grove. Cardinals' coach Dave Maguire said the visitors put their best pitcher on the mound to start the game, but St. Albert had no problems while racking up nine runs in the first two-and-a-third innings.

"What I take out of [Tuesday's] game is that for the first couple of innings, when they were throwing their best [pitcher], we handled him very, very well and we kept our focus, even though we were piling on the runs," Maguire said.

Vilcsak slugged an inside-the-park home run. Marcus Blair collected four RBIs and Carson Bokenfohr knocked in three base runners.

The bench boss also said it was crucial to get off to a good start Wednesday to avoid any possibility of an emotional letdown, as well as to take a little bit of pressure off of starting pitcher Aaron Larose.

In the bottom of the first inning, the Cardinals quickly jumped out to a 4-0 lead. Sean Poulin led things off with a walk and was brought home by Vilcsak with an RBI triple. Catcher Layne Viveiros doubled the home team's lead with an RBI single, then advanced to second on a bad throw to first. After St. Albert took a 3-0 lead on an RBI from Ryan Anderson, Sherwood Park pitcher Jake Lonferman committed a costly balk. That moved Anderson over to third and he subsequently scored on a wild pitch.

The Cardinals added to their lead in the second inning with RBI hits from three different batters, including a big RBI triple to the left-centre field wall by Riley Moskaluk that put his team up 7-0.

In the fourth inning, though, Sherwood Park began chipping away at the St. Albert lead. With two runners on, David Walter smacked a ball down the first-base line that grazed off the outstretched glove of Bokenfohr to score both runners as Walter reached second base safely.

"Another inch our way and he probably catches it and they don't cash in those runs, but baseball's a game of inches and the baseball gods didn't like us on that play," Maguire said.

Sherwood Park added another couple of runs on a bit of a lucky play one inning later with Bokenfohr involved again. With a runner on second base, Tyler Mathieu hit a ball to a difficult spot in shallow right field. Bokenfohr, along with the right-fielder and the second baseman, were all within inches of the ball but it fell to the ground. On the throw home, the ball just skipped past Viveiros and went behind the plate, allowing the first run to score. After Larose retrieved the ball and threw it back to home plate, Mathieu scored just under the tag.

The Athletics added another two runs in the inning that cut the St. Albert lead to one run, but Lyndon Galvin quickly made it 8-6 in the bottom of the fifth.

"That was a really, really important run for us because defending a two-run lead is a lot better than trying to defend a one-run lead. We then tacked on a few more after which just made it a little bit easier," Maguire said. "But they're a good team [and] we've had some good games with them this year. We enjoy playing them."

Saskatoon tourney

Last weekend, St. Albert had a strong showing at a tournament in Saskatoon, coming out on top in the B final with a 4-2 win over the Regina Pacers. Anderson allowed two runs on two hits and struck out three. Vilcsak came on in relief and surrendered one hit to record the win. Moskaluk, Poulin, Blair and Anderson drove in runs.

The only loss for the Cardinals was 4-3 against the Regina Buffalos. Regina scored the winning run in the bottom of the last inning. Blair gave up three runs on four hits and struck out eight. Larose had two RBIs in a losing cause.

Leading up to the loss, the Cardinals posted wins of 4-1 against the Saskatoon Blue Jays (Jay Florkevich scattered three hits over six innings and struck out eight), 2-0 against the Regina Pacers (Mat Brisson allowed three hits and struck out five over five innings) and 5-1 against Martensville (Moskaluk tossed a two-hitter and struck out 13).

The Cardinals are back in action with a pair of home doubleheaders this weekend. They host Foothills Red today at noon and 3 p.m. and the Red Deer Braves on Sunday at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

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