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Diamond Dust

Coverage of the Baseball Canada tournaments for the Cardinals, plus the NCABL weekend final
WEB SPORTS 2108 cardinals CC 6436
PLAYING THE BALL – Evan Bourassa of the St. Albert Cardinals tracks down a grounder for the repeat winners of the Baseball Alberta 18U AAA Tier I championship. At nationals in London, Ont., the Cardinals finished 4-2 and one of the losses was Saturday's 7-4 pool B tiebreaker against Manitoba. In Sunday's seventh/eighth placement game in the 10-team tournament, the Cardinals beat New Brunswick 5-3. Last year the Cardinals placed fourth at nationals in Fort McMurray. CHRIS COLBOURNE/St. Albert Gazette

18U nationals

The St. Albert Cardinals lost only two games at the 18U Baseball Canada championship, but the second setback dropped Team Alberta out of the playoff round.

Saturday's 7-4 pool B tiebreaker against Manitoba left the Cardinals playing New Brunswick in Sunday's seventh/eighth placement game at the 10-team tournament in London, Ont.

The Cardinals scored four runs in their first at-bat and lead 5-0 after innings, en route to the 5-3 victory.

The Cardinals out-hit New Brunswick 8-4 as Jacob Cebryk and pickup Carter Burton of Sherwood Park collected a pair each.

Cebryk also drove home two runs while Evan Bourassa and Blake Morris doubled once.

Ashton Finkbeiner tossed five innings for the win and his three-hitter included six strikeouts and four walks.

Dylan Dabels and Brady Kobitowich also pitched in relief.

In the loss to Manitoba, the Cardinals posted four runs in the top of two to lead 4-2 but a five-run third put the Red Birds behind the eight-ball for the rest of the contest.

Starting pitcher Tyson Kowaluk was tagged for seven runs on nine hits over three innings while walking four and fanning two.

Jackson Moffat closed out the last three innings with no hits, one strikeout and one walk.

Austin Friesen of Manitoba went the distance and his six-hitter included six strikeouts and three walks.

Tyler Herron and Cebryk both had two hits and Will Gardner added two RBIs.

Friday in pool play, the Cardinals hung on to beat Manitoba 8-7 after leading 8-1 after four innings. Hits were 10-7 for Manitoba and both teams commited three errors.

The rest of the pool B results were 2-1 in an extra inning against British Columbia as the tournament opener was scoreless through seven innings, 11-1 in five innings against Nova Scotia and 10-4 against Prince Edward Island.

Cebryk led the team at nationals with nine hits and six RBIs in 18 at-bats.

Evan Wilde, a pick up from Calgary, recorded five hits, including a pair of doubles, and scored a team-high five runs.

Kade Knight finished with four RBIs and Bourrassa drew five walks.

Evan Wilde also gave up three hits and walked two while striking out 10 with 92 pitches thrown over 7-1/3 innings against B.C.

Visit baseball.ca for the tournament website.

Last year the Cardinals finished fourth at nationals in Fort McMurray after losing the bronze-medal game 11-1 to Quebec.

The last U18 medal for the Cardinals was silver in 2014 at Magog, Que.

Leading up to nationals, the Cardinals placed second in the Norwest league at 27-8 and at provincials in Sherwood Park went 5-0 as the first 18U AAA Tier I team to repeat since Okotoks Dawgs Black in 2011-12.

Three of the 10 returnees from last year – pitcher Liam Froment, shortstop Mike Brisson and first baseman Ryan Marples – were unavailable for nationals because of college commitments in the United States.

13U nationals

The Baseball Canada championship starts Thursday for the first 13U team from the St. Albert Minor Baseball Association to compete at nationals since the 2014 fourth-place Cardinals.

In pool B at the 10-team tournament in Repentigny, Que., the Cardinals play Ontario 2 and Price Edward Island, followed by games against Quebec on Friday and British Columbia on Saturday.

The tournament website is u13.baseball.ca.

The Cardinals are 32-5 as the Baseball Alberta 13U AAA Tier I champions.

The team’s roster consists of seven returnees from last year’s 26-8 silver medallists at westerns as provincial finalists.

NCABL final

Legion Memorial Park is the site for the North Central Alberta Baseball League final this weekend.

The Sherwood Park Athletics will play the Edmonton Blackhawks or Edmonton Primeaus in the best-of-three senior AA playoff.

Game times are 1 and 4 p.m. Saturday and game three, if needed, is 2 p.m. Sunday.

In the semfinals, the Athletics swept the host Westlock Red Lions in two games last weekend while game three between the Blackhawks and Primeaus was played Tuesday and the score was unavailable at press time.

Last year the Blackhawks swept the final against the Athletics.

In league play, the Athletics (17-4) placed first, followed by the Blackhawks (13-8), Primeaus (11-9-1) and Westlock (11-9-1), who defeated the St. Albert Cardinals (11-9-1) 9-1 in the fourth-place tiebreaker at St. Albert.

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