Cardinals Keep Their Foot on The Gas Pedal Against Nanaimo and Complete 4-Game Sweep on Opening Weekend

Fresh off a Saturday sweep of the Eagles the West Coast Cardinals were back it and ready to build on an already successful weekend. The weather was perfect, Mariner Field was in great condition and the boys from Vancouver/Coquitlam rocking the bright red Cardinal button-up jerseys with navy piping similar to yesterday wasted no time showing why their deep lineup and pitching staff should be force to reckoned with this year.

CARDINALS 13 Nanaimo 0 (5 innings)

The Nanaimo Pirates were out early at Mariner Field getting their hacks in and both teams looked sharp in warmup; however, it was the Cards who for the second time in three games put up a 5 spot before theirr own starting pitcher could toe the rubber. A Sugi smash at the fenceless Mariner Field carried to deep centre and continued rolling, this two-base knock had the leadoff hitter Turnbull standing on third and the cunning second-year vet on second base with a standup double, with this the Cardinals were poised to strike. And that they did, Yuen added to his ridiculous run of base hits with yet another simple RBI single up the middle, giving WCC a 1-0 lead. That run would hold up as the only run the Cardinals would need in this game, but the Cards never stopped swinging as Powell and Kang hit back-to-back singles, both players would also come around to score on a well-executed RBI groundout by Symons followed by a solid base hit by Hendriks. Sugi, who just came back from Japan no longer than a week ago had a comfortbale 5 run cushion to begin with and the crafty, baseball enthusiast did not disappoint in his first outing of the season. #3 rocking the red high socks was simply dominant in this one facing the minimum over 3 innings, striking out 7 of the 9 batters and doing it all under 45 pitches. Another 5 spot was thrown up on the scoreboard by the West Coast Cardinals as 9 batters came to plate in the 2nd inning, Suzuki got the 2nd inning rolling with the leadoff triple for his first career hit as a Bantam-aged player; Sugi, Yuen and Baybay all followed-suit with clean singles in back-to-back-to-back fashion, while Kang collected his 2nd of 2 hits in what would be a big offensive day for the big Korean. Symons was effective in relief, working out of his own jams also finishing his 2 inning outing unscathed. It was a clean victory with 12 hits and 0 defensive errors from the team based out of Vancouver/Coquitlam, 13-0 in 5 innings the final in this contest.

CARDINALS 11 Nanaimo 1 (6 innings)

The back end of the double header featured the much anticipated start from the first-year Burnaby import, Max Yuen. Before Yuen could throw a pitch, he was staked to a 5-0 lead making it 3 out of the 4 weekend games where West Coast has scored 5 runs in the first inning. Turnbull led off the inning with a walk and one pitch later was standing on third just 80" from scoring the first run of the game, Sugi promptly drove him in with a base knock, Yuen helped out his own cause with a knock of his own. The two speed demons teamed up to take advantage of a napping Pirate defence by executing a textbook double steal setting up a big RBI chance for the veteran clean-up stick in Thomas Baybay. The lone 2016 VanMinor Bantam AAA returnee took a healthy hack on a 2-1 fastball but dribbled it to the mound but a costly error by the pitcher saved him and Sugi as both the aforementioned Sugi and Yuen came around to score on an errant throw, Baybay rounded 1st and 2nd on the overthrow landing on 3rd. That seemed to be the turning point of the game as Kang, Fukuoka and Hendriks all made solid contact for singles while Miles worked his way on only to be stranded on 2nd, nevertheless 5-0 after 1. Yuen, did not disappoint as he and Fukuoka were a battery for 3 whole innings, Yuen matched Sugi's earlier outing pitch for pitch, he too facing the minimum and striking out the same number (7) of players Sugi did in game 1 of the DH. Suzuki threw after Yuen and was real good as the former New West Little Leaguer shut down the Pirate offence racking up 4Ks in a scoreless 2 innings of relief work. Baybay would be the final pitcher the Cardinals would throw this weekend giving them a total of 11 quality arms that saw live game action on the opening weekend of the Bantam AAA season. The final play of the game was meant to be as the late addition catcher from the infamous 2016 VanMinor Bantam AA Expos, Mats Fukuoka,gunned out a Pirate trying to nab second to slam the book shut on their first island trip. Offensive standouts in this one included Kang who had 4 RBIs and had a big day at the plate going 3/6 with 5 RBIs in two games, Baybay was 2/3 in this contest with 3 RBIs himself. The defence all weekend was stellar as not a single error was made Sunday and only a total of 2 errors committed all weekend, mind you pitchers from West Coast these past couple days recorded 62% of the outs via. the punchout.

It wasn't the competition the players, spectators or coaches expected, but it goes to show that preparation was key coming into Opening Weekend. The Cardinals trained for countless hours indoors and got lucky that a diamond like Nanaimo Park that drains well was able to play host for a number of exhibition games and hold numerous outdoor practices. 53 runs for and 3 runs against to kick off the season is a step in the right direction, but the Cardinals know that getting comfortable is the last thing on their minds right now, lots of work as a team needs to be done in the upcoming weeks to be prepared for the top teams and upcoming tournaments. It was a fun weekend but the grind has only just begun...