18U AAA Cardinals
The St. Albert Cardinals will defend their Baseball Alberta 18U AAA Tier I championship this weekend in Sherwood Park.
The Cardinals (27-8) will be challenged by the Parkland Twins (29-5), Calgary Bandits (22-11), Sherwood Park Athletics (16-17), South Jasper Place Jays (16-18), Red Deer Braves (14-20) and Calgary Cubs (9-25) of the Tier I division of the Norwest 18U AAA Baseball League.
The Northern Lights of Grande Prairie also qualified for the tournament by winning the Tier II provincial final 3-2 against the Edmonton Padres on Sunday in Fort McMurray. The Northern Lights (14-7) and Padres (12-18) were slotted in the Norwest league's Tier II division.
The provincial schedule for Centennial Park was to be made available by Baseball Alberta on Tuesday.
The provincial champion qualifies for nationals, Aug. 15 to 18 at London, Ont., and the second-place finisher will play at westerns, Aug. 16 to 18 at Red Deer.
The Cardinals have 10 returnees from last year’s fourth-place finish at nationals in Fort McMurray.
The Cardinals closed out their July schedule in the Norwest league with 12 wins in 15 games and four of the games were against the rival Twins: 1-0 and 4-3 losses and 4-1 and 3-1 wins.
The Cardinals will be profiled in Saturday’s edition of the Gazette.
21U AAA Cardinals
The St. Albert Cardinals are ranked No. 1 in the four-team Baseball Alberta 21U tournament at Wally Footz Field.
The Cardinals play the No. 4 Community Park Reds at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday’s games are noon against the No. 3 Edmonton Padres, the host team, and 6 p.m. against the No. 2 Innisfail Merchants.
If there are no tiebreakers, the final is noon Monday. If the first-place team in the round robin is undefeated, a loss in the final would force a sudden-death game at 3 p.m.
The junior AAA champion advances to westerns, Aug. 9 to 11 at Saskatoon.
In the Baseball Alberta 21U League, the Cardinals (11-7) and Innisfail (11-8) finished tied for first with 22 points apiece, followed by the Padres (10-8) and Community Park (9-10).
The Fort Saskatchewan Red Sox (4-12) withdrew from the league earlier this month.
League play ended Sunday with the Cardinals and Innisfail splitting a doubleheader by scores of 8-7 for the Red Birds and 6-5 for the Merchants in Innisfail.
The season series between the teams is 3-2 for the Cardinals and all five games were decided by one run.
Last year the Cardinals placed first in league play at 16-6 and lost the provincial final 13-7 to the Merchants (10-6) in Innisfail.
The Cardinals also hosted westerns, but the five-team round-robin at Legion Memorial Park was cut short by rain.
18U AA Cardinals
The eight-team Baseball Alberta 18U AA Tier I tournament starts 9 a.m. Friday with eight games scheduled at Legion Memorial Park.
Pool A teams play on the Landrex diamond and Pool B teams are on the Active Physioworks diamond.
The rest of the games Saturday and Sunday are slated for the Landrex diamond.
The host St. Albert Cardinals Red is ranked No. 2 at provincials and Friday’s game times are noon against the Red Deer Braves Red and 6 p.m. against the Barrhead Orioles.
Saturday the Cardinals play the Provost Pilots at 6 p.m.
Sunday’s crossover semifinals are 9 a.m. and noon, and the final is 3 p.m.
The winner represents Alberta at the Aug. 15 to 18 westerns at Strathmore.
Pool B consists of the Strathmore Reds, Innisfail Hawks, Leduc Giants and Okotoks Outlaws Orange.
In the Tier I division of the Baseball Alberta 18U AA League, the Cardinals (14-3-1) placed first, followed by Strathmore (12-5), Innisfail (11-7), Provost (11-7), Leduc (10-7) and Barrhead (9-7-1).
The top two teams in Tier II, Okotoks (12-4) and Red Deer (12-7), qualified for the Tier I provincials.
In the Tier I provincial round, Strathmore, the Cardinals and Provost posted identical 4-2 records for top spot.
The last two losses for the Cardinals were against Strathmore: 23-6 July 20 and 11-6 July 22.
13U AAA Cardinals
The St. Albert Cardinals are the team to beat in round two of the Baseball Alberta 13U AAA Tier I tournament this weekend in Red Deer.
The No. 1-ranked Cardinals qualified for the six-team playoffs after going 4-0 in pool play last weekend in Red Deer.
In Saturday’s semifinals, the Cardinals will play the Okotoks Dawgs or Calgary Dinos while the Red Deer Braves will face the Edmonton Padres or Edmonton Expos.
Sunday the third-place game is noon and the final is 3 p.m.
The Alberta champion goes to nationals, Aug. 22 to 25 at Repentigny, Que., and the runner-up and third-place winner compete at westerns, Aug. 15 to 18 at Cloverdale, B.C.
In pool play, the Cardinals posted victories of 20-0 against the Fort McMurray Oil Giants, 10-0 against the Padres, 21-9 against the Dinos and 14-1 against the Parkland Twins.
The Cardinals (26-5), Okotoks (22-3), Red Deer (20-9), Padres (17-12), Parkland (16-17), Sherwood Park Athletics (10-15), Calgary (10-16), Expos (5-22) and Fort McMurray (3-30) of the Baseball Alberta 13U AAA League qualified for provincials.
Last year the Cardinals were silver medallists at provincials and westerns.
13U AA Cardinals
The game times have been finalized for the host team at the Baseball Alberta 13U AA Tier I tournament this weekend at Legion Memorial Park.
St. Albert Cardinals Red is up to bat at 6:15 p.m. Friday, and 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday in pool play.
Saturday’s pool A and B schedules will be split between the 13U and 11U diamonds.
Sunday’s crossover semifinals are 9 a.m. and noon, and the final is 3 p.m.
The provincial champion advances to westerns, Aug. 16 to 18 at Strathmore.
The tournament consists of the Cardinals (10-8), Innisfail Hawks (16-1), Beaumont BoSox (16-2), Camrose Cougars Royal (13-4), Strathmore Reds 1 (13-5), Oyen Orioles (9-9) and Grande Prairie Reds 1 (8-10) of the Tier I division and Stettler Storm in the Tier II division of the Baseball Alberta 13U AA League.
15U AAA Cardinals
The St. Albert Cardinals were expected to be ranked fourth in the eight-team Baseball Alberta 15U AAA Tier I tournament when the provincial draw was to be released Tuesday.
Provincials start Friday morning in Okotoks. The winner heads to nationals, Aug. 22 to 25 at Oshawa, Ont., and the second-place winner will compete at westerns, Aug. 16 to 18 at Lloydminster.
The Baseball Alberta 15U AAA League consisted of 14 teams in three divisions and the top teams were the Cardinals (21-8) and Parkland Twins (16-13) in the north, Foothills Dawgs Black (29-0), Foothills Dawgs Red (18-14) and Calgary Dinos (17-15) in the south and Camrose Cougars (25-8) and Red Deer Braves (24-6) in the central.
11U Cardinals White
The Baseball Alberta 11U AA Tier VII championship last weekend at Legion Memorial Park ended with the host team finishing with one win and two losses.
St. Albert Cardinals White won its first game 27-8 against the Cold Lake Cardinals on Friday before suffering setbacks against Strathmore Reds 2 and Coronation Royals.
Pete Wilde pitched through some cold rain Saturday to keep the Cardinals in contention against Strathmore, but couldn't catch up in the bottom of the sixth in the 20-18 loss.
Sunday the Cardinals scored one run by stealing home while the Coronation pitcher tossed four innings of one-hit ball and yielded one walk.
The final was 9-6 for Strathmore against Coronation in six innings.
The Baseball Alberta 11U AA League record for the Cardinals was 5-11-1.
