The St. Albert Cardinals are flying high as one of the top U15 AAA baseball teams in the province.
Ten wins in 13 games, with 123 runs scored and 54 against, is on par with the Foothills Dawgs Black (10-0, 141 RF/24 RA) and Red Deer Braves (10-2, 129 RF/69 RA) in the 14-team circuit.
“We started off the year pretty good,” said head coach Brad Wolansky. “We’re pretty deep all the way through. We have a lot of guys who can get on the mound and throw innings for us. Our hitting has been really key at the start of the year. The top of the lineup has really been producing a lot of runs, getting on base a lot of the time and driving in a lot of runs.
“But it’s really been our defence that has been pretty spectacular all the way through so far this year. We’re still learning the game mentally, but we’re not making the physical errors and we’re fielding the ball pretty well.”
The Cardinals enter this weekend’s homestand at Legion Memorial Park as winners of five in a row. Today the Red Birds play the Fort McMurray Oil Giants (3-11) at 12 noon and the Lethbridge Bulls (3-4) at 6 p.m. and Sunday’s game times are 9 a.m. against Lethbridge and 3 p.m. against Fort McMurray.
“We’re really drilling in their heads that we can’t take any opponents lightly. It’s a new opponent every single game so what happens in one game doesn’t necessarily affect another. You have to treat every opponent with respect so you come out ready to play and put your best foot forward every time you step between the lines,” said Wolansky, who took over the dugout duties this year from longtime U15 AAA coach Sean Erikson.
The 2018 Cardinals split four games at Tier I provincials after going 22-14 in league play and the record included a playdown mark of 15-11.
“Last year’s team we had a lot of power but this year we have a lot more speed,” said Logan Kowaluk, a returning Cardinal along with Jack Hudson, Matt Morin and Carter Roy.
“Right now we’re really working on playing as a team really well,” said Kowaluk, a versatile shortstop, third baseman and second baseman.
Kowaluk, 15, wasn’t sure how the Cardinals would perform after last year.
“I thought it might be a bit of a rough start but we’ve been doing really well and it’s really surprised me,” said the Grade 9 Vincent J. Maloney student. “We’ve come out really strong as a team. Our bats are working really well and defensively we're insane right now."
Last weekend at Goldstick Park, the Cardinals swept the four-game series with victories of 9-4 and 18-0 against the Edmonton Expos (2-9-1) and 9-4 and 11-3 against the Calgary Dinos (4-5).
As for shutting out the Expos, “We really showed off how well of a hitting team we are. We were able to pick up the pitcher and get the bats on the ball and beat them by a big margin,” Kowaluk said.
The best of the bunch as far as wins are concerned, according to Wolansky, was the 7-6 decision against the Edmonton Padres (3-6) May 12 in Fort McMurray.
“It was one of the very first weekends of the year and it was kind of a back and forth game where they had a lead and then we came back and we took a lead and then we went into extra innings and we gave up the lead again but then we managed to find a way to fight through some things and come out with a one-run victory,” said the St. Albert Minor Baseball Association product and senior AAA St. Albert Tigers veteran. “That was a pretty good game where we really saw mental toughness, we saw that we could play with anybody and we were able to come back when the chips were down.”
