Cardinals Finally Get The Ball Rolling Under The Sun
Posted March 20, 2017
The West Coast Cardinals got their first taste of game action this past weekend against two Bantam PBL teams, Langley and Whalley. With 5 of the Cardinals' players unavailable for this weekend, including the club's only two catchers the team made use of 4 AA players throughout the weekend. The Cardinals would like to thank Adrain, Canofari, Duncan-Wu and Powell for their time.
LangleyPrep 2 CARDINALS 3
The rainy weather has definitely got the better of the Cards for the majority of March, but they were finally able to play their first official exhibition games this past weekend at Nanaimo Park. The soft and muddy field conditions along with the cool wind made it tough on both the Cards and the Langley Blaze Bantam Prep to accomplish much over 9 innings on Saturday afternoon, as the game turned out to be a low-scoring affair with strikeouts littering the scoresheet. In the end, the Cards, who were rocking their vintage red Vancouver jerseys managed to walk off the Blaze in the bottom of the 9th by a score of 3-2.
The Cards didn’t have a ton of work to do in the field in this game - instead, they watched while their pitchers racked up piles of strikeouts. Crozier, Symons, Hendriks and Kang each threw two complete innings, with Baybay taking the mound in the 9th. With the score tied at 1, Baybay beaned the second batter of the inning, and he didn’t take long to come around to score the go-ahead run. Langley’s big hitter dropped one down the right field line to put his team ahead 2-1, only to be thrown out at 3rd base on the same play after a fantastic relay between Crozier in right and Hendriks at 2nd. This play essentially saved Langley from cashing in an insurance run and made it much easier for the Cards to rally in the bottom of the 9th. Symons led off the inning with a walk, then stole 2nd base to set the table for Crozier, who knocked in Symons with a hard grounder that took an ugly hop over the shortstop’s glove into left-centre field. Miles then laid down a beautiful bunt that allowed Crozier to take 3rd and later score the winning run on a wild pitch. It wasn’t pretty, but the Cards executed perfectly late in the game when it mattered most to nab the victory. The Blaze fielded a mix of players from their grade 8 and grade 9 squads on Saturday, so when the Cards meet the Blaze again a month from now at the Best of the West tournament in Kamloops, the Blaze’s full grade 9 roster will no doubt prove to be challenging to overcome.
WhalleyPrep 8 CARDINALS 5 (Game 1)
WhalleyPrep 5 CARDINALS 0 (Game 2)
The sunny weather thankfully continued into Sunday, where the Cards met the Whalley Chiefs Bantam Prep for a double-header right back at Nanaimo Park, which was already in better shape than it was the day before. Unfortunately, the Cards' pitchers were not able to perform at the same level they did on Saturday, handing out a whopping 20 free passes in 2 games, 14 of which occurred in an 8-5 loss in game 1. Whalley did most of their damage on the bases rather than at the plate, as almost every walk was essentially a triple with seemingly every other pitch reaching the backstop. The Cards' pitchers did their best to make it easy for the Chiefs' hitters, who only had 3 hits despite plating 8 runs in the front end of the double-header. In game 2, the Cards dug themselves an early hole by allowing 3 to score in the 1st inning and were never able to get back into it, ultimately dropping the game 5-0. Falling behind early was a common theme on the day, as the Cards also surrendered 3 in the 1st inning of game 1. The numbers at the plate for the Cards on Sunday were somewhat of a mixed bag. The strikeout totals were still sky high, but the boys did manage to punch out 11 hits in 2 games. Offensive standouts included Hendriks, who found the gap in right-centre for the Cards' only extra-base hit to date, and Baybay who had 4 hits on the day and drove in 2 runs.
The Cards may not have earned the results they were looking for this weekend, but they were extremely fortunate to have a field they could play on and gain some valuable game experience, which a ton of other teams in the province cannot say about themselves right now. They still have one final tune-up next Sunday in Cloverdale before their regular season kicks off with a gruelling 4-game weekend on the island.