St. Albert Cardinals are picking up the pace in pursuit of a junior AAA provincial championship.
“We’re getting ready to make a run at the championship,” said Kevin Olafson, the winning pitcher for the 10-6 Cardinals in Sunday’s 5-0 decision against the Edmonton Padres at Legion Memorial Park. “Last year we definitely started off a lot better, but we kind of slowed down at the end of the year and this year it’s kind of been the opposite. We’ve been building a little bit towards provincials. We’re just trying to clean up things and get ready to go.”
Last year the Cardinals finished first in the Baseball Alberta 21U league at 16-6 and were the provincial runners-up as the host team for westerns.
“This year's team is definitely a lot younger. For some it’s their first time playing (in the 21U league) so we’re trying to figure out the division, but it’s starting to shape up pretty nice,” Olafson said. “We lost a couple of pitchers from last year, but we’ve got a couple of hitters this year so it’s a little bit different that way.”
The Cardinals, Innisfail Merchants (10-7) and Edmonton Padres (10-8) are tied for first place with one weekend remaining in league play before the Aug. 3 to 5 provincials at Wally Footz Field.
The Community Park Reds (9-10) and Fort Saskatchewan Red Sox (4-12) round out the standings.
The Cardinals close out the regular season Sunday in Innisfail with a doubleheader against the defending provincial champions.
“We’re doing well. This game (against the Padres) bumped us back up into first place so that's important for our pride. We want to go in (to provincials) as the team to beat and I think we’ve re-established that so that's good for us. We’re looking forward to it,” said head coach Jason Enright.
Despite the 11-6 loss to the Reds in the afternoon contest, Enright believes the Cardinals rank with the Padres and Innisfail “as probably the top three in the province, but you can never take the other teams lightly because they will sneak up on you.”
The Cardinals were also short some players for Sunday’s twin bill – a few were doing double duty with Enright’s senior AA Cardinals in the North Central Alberta Baseball League and had commitments with Sunday’s all-star game at Remax Field.
“Once we get more bodies we’ll be even harder to beat,” Enright said.
The wet weather has played havoc with the league schedule and the only game in July for the Cardinals before Sunday was the 14-7 loss to the Padres on July 10 in St. Albert.
“It’s good to come and play baseball again because it’s been a while,” Olafson said. “We missed a lot of games and we can’t even practise as well because it’s been raining so it’s good to come and swing the bat and throw the ball around.
The Cardinals were anxious to right a wrong against the Padres after the team’s worst showing of the season in losing by seven runs to the Northeast Zone-based team two weeks ago.
“We didn't play our best last time against them. We had a little trouble with defence and our pitching was a little off and we didn't hit the ball very well, but today we hit with runners in scoring position really well and we didn't make a lot of errors,” said Olafson.
The 19-year-old righty went the distance for the shutout while allowing only a handful of hits in limiting the number of runners in scoring position.
“I was just feeling good. My change-up was working good today,” said the Edmonton Christian High School graduate who alternates as a starter and reliever in the team’s pitching rotation.
NCABL Cardinals
The senior AA Cardinals also saw their NCABL schedule rejigged several times because of the rain and Tuesday’s home game against the Stony Plain Mets was their fourth of the month.
“That's been tough obviously on everybody playing outdoor sports, especially baseball fields. It’s hurt us tremendously trying to get the diamond time with the reschedules. We’ve got games we’ve rescheduled twice and they're continually getting rescheduled so it’s going to be a lot of baseball at the end of the season here for the playoff push,” Enright said.
The Cardinals (6-6-1) were fifth in the eight-team standings before playing the Mets (6-8) and the score was unavailable at press time.
The top four make the best-of-three semifinals starting Aug. 12.
“We’re right at that cusp line to get into the playoffs for the first time (since entering the NCABL in 2013). We have a couple of games coming up that we think should fall in our favour if we play well,” Enright said. “We like where we’re at, but getting some consistent playing time has been definitely hard for us.”
Saturday the Cardinals host the Parkland Twins (1-12) in a doubleheader and game times are 1:30 and 4 p.m.
Tuesday the second-place Edmonton Primeaus (11-4) are the visitors at 7:15 p.m.
“We’ve had some injuries, especially to our pitching staff so we’ve been hanging on and surviving considering what we’ve gone through. It’s been tough,” Enright said.
Injuries to key players, especially among the pitchers, have also played a role in the team’s .500 record.
“Tanner (McLean-Poll) has been out significantly with a lower body injury and (Brendan) Larsen had a comebacker on the mound several weeks ago that limited him to miss some time. He got back on the mound finally last week against Westlock and pitched a complete game (4-3 win), which we needed because we were running pretty thin on our pitching staff.
“Once we get those couple of guys healthy that will be a good thing for us for the rest of the season.”
Larsen, catcher Jake Enright, second baseman Nic Arlia and a pair of outfielders, Mitch King and fan favourite Hayden Chies (“Hayden was voted in. It’s an annual thing for him,” Enright said), represented the Cardinals at the NCABL all-star game with the Beverly Optimist All-Stars, 7-2 winners against the Morinville Jiffy Lube All-stars.
18U AA Cardinals
Enright, the busiest person in St. Albert baseball next to the head groundskeeper at the Legion diamonds, is also coaching 18U AA Cardinals Red, the host team for the Baseball Alberta Tier I provincials Aug. 2 to 4.
The Cardinals (13-3-1), Strathmore Reds (12-5), Innisfail Hawks (11-7), Leduc Giants (10-5), Provost Pilots (10-7), Barrhead Orioles (9-7-1), plus the top two teams in the Tier II division, will compete for the right to represent Alberta at the Aug. 16 to 18 westerns at Strathmore.
“When we’re playing our best our pitching and defence by far is our strength," Enright said. "The kids also work hard and when they do that good things happen for us."
The Cardinals are coming off recent losses of 11-6 and 23-6 to Strathmore after doubling Innisfail 8-4.
“They’re looking pretty good,” Enright said of Strathmore. “When we played Innisfail (Saturday) our pitiching and defence was extremely solid. We made less errors and pitched a little better and that's what got us the game.”
Thursday the Cardinals host Leduc at 8 p.m. in the last game before provincials.
