The midget AAA St. Albert Cardinals evened their overall record to 12-12 on the weekend by picking up three wins in Fort McMurray.
While the pitchers struggled a little on Saturday, the Red Birds won two games by 13-8 and 9-3 scores. On Sunday, they came out stronger overall and won 11-1.
With Norwest League ball and tournaments combined, the team is .500 at 12-12, including 8-11 in league play. Two of those wins have come by forfeit over Calgary.
“In the first two games, we came out a little slow,” said St. Albert coach Sean Erikson. “We actually let Fort McMurray get out to a couple leads. We had a little inconsistent pitching. We walked a few guys and they took advantage, but in both games we were able to tighten it up, especially going through the third, fourth, fifth innings.”
Nathan Coffin got the start on the mound for the Cardinals in the first game of the three-game set, picking up the win, while Jordan Denault came in to close the game out. In the second, Taylor Simmonds, who recently returned from Vauxhall in southern Alberta after finishing his Grade 12 year, got the start. He was only able to go three innings before Erikson handed the ball off to Matt Woodland. The reliever didn’t allow a run in any of the final three innings.
Simmonds was brought out fairly early because Erikson wanted to save him for a match-up on Tuesday against Sherwood Park, a game that had to be made up from last week because the A’s coach was leading Team Alberta at the time. The result from Tuesday’s game was not available as of press time.
While he didn’t have a dominating pitching performance, Simmonds made up for it when he came up to the plate. The 18-year-old hasn’t batted in a game since last summer while playing for the Cardinals, since he was used exclusively as a pitcher in Vauxhall, but on the weekend, hit two singles, a triple, a home run and earned three walks.
Simmonds will now be able to hold his home run over Shane Zimmer’s head, a teammate of his with the Cardinals and down in Vauxhall. Zimmer is known for his home run prowess.
“Shane, he had a good weekend with the bat,” Erikson said. “He had five doubles. It’s a big adjustment for him as far as pitch speed compared to what he’s been seeing down in Vauxhall. It’s a lot slower pitching, so it’s a big adjustment not to get out in front.”
In addition, St. Albert’s defence played fairly well over the weekend despite having to put up with some tough field conditions.
“It’s a real hard playing surface so there’s some interesting hops,” Erikson said. “It was hurting both us and them, but we managed to just keep it simple, not try to do too much, keep the ball in front of us and made the most of the plays that had to be made, while taking advantage of the errors and chances they were creating for us on offence.”
The Cardinals leave for a tournament in Trail, B.C., today and play their first game on Thursday, where they’ll be up against some unfamiliar opponents, including teams from British Columbia, Washington and Saskatchewan.
“We’re not going to set our sights too high because we really haven’t gotten to see the teams we’re going to be playing against, but it’ll be a great opportunity to see some fresh blood and see how we compare,” Erikson said.
The senior AAA St. Albert Tigers had a few days off from Sunburst League play over the Canada Day long weekend.
Their last league game was June 25 when they beat the Red Deer Riggers in a mercy-rule 13-5 win at Legion Memorial Ball Park. They were scheduled to play against the Fort Saskatchewan Athletics on June 29, but the game was rained out.
The Tigers played the Red Deer Riggers Tuesday in Red Deer but the score was not available at press time. They conclude their regular season schedule with a pair of games on July 15 and 16.
