Cardinals' Late and Exciting 7th Inning Rally Headlines Game 1's Comeback Win vs. Kelowna; Defense Sloppy in Game 2 But Offense Picks Up The Slack as West Coast Sweep the Sun Devils

West Coast completed a sweep of the scrappy Kelowna Sun Devils on a hot, muggy day at Edith Gay Park. The sweep wasn't without excitement and stress as the Cardinals put their faith in Sugi, down to his last strike, Sugi not only tied the game with one swing but also drove in the go-ahead run to put West Coast up 1. Yuen finished off the bottom half throwing a complete game, 3-2 for the Cards in game 1. The defense in game 2 was not up to par as they committed 6 errors, the offense fortunately picked up the slack pounding out 12 hits and scoring 5 more runs than they gave up enroute to a 10-5 win for the Cards in the back half of this double header.

CARDINALS 3 Kelowna 2

The West Coast Cardinals experienced the weekend island trip at the beginning of the year where they completed a clean 4-0 sweep to kick off the season. A couple weeks ago, Cloverdale went 2-2 on their weekend interior trip, no one said it was going to be easy, no one expected it to be easy, now it was West Coast's turn to face the dreaded trip. The first inning proved to be uneventful for the both teams, as both teams each hit lonely singles in their half of the inning but nothing came about. Yuen got the start for the Cardinals with Kelowna's Kohlen given the task of halting a potent Cardinal offence. Hendriks led off the 2nd inning and battled Kohlen pitch after pitch before drawing an 8 pitch free pass, the leadoff walk would end up biting Kohlen in the rear-end as Hendriks would steal second and advance to third on a wild pitch. New and Powell would both walk with 1 out to load the bases for 9-batter Miles. Miles who has been very consistent on driving in runs with runners in scoring position did a formidable job of taking a high fastball from Kohlen into RF, the catch was made but Hendriks made the mistake of forgetting to tag up, opportunity lost. With leadoff hitter, Turnbull up and watching ball 1, Yam gave the thought to Hendriks of stealing home with Kohlen's long and extended windup, the very next pitch Hendriks made up for his miscue on 3rd by completing a clean steal of home (even though the umpire did eventually call a balk on Kohlen after the fact). Cardinals would make a 2-out error in the bottom of the 2nd and let Kelowna score an unearned run, 1-1 after 2.

Kelowna would take the lead in their bottom half of the 3rd as Brady Renneberg, one of two Renneberg twins would hit a double to the left-centre gap scoring Badger easily from 2nd putting the Sun Devils up 2-1 after 3. Kang for the Cardinals led off the 4th with a ringing double himself into the left-centre gap, with runs coming at a premium in this contest, Yam opted to go to Suzuki as a pinch runner. The very next pitch with none out and true intentions of a SAC bunt, Suzuki took off for 3rd with none out and a lefty at the plate, safe to say Suzuki was easily gunned out by Adam Renneberg, the other of two Renneberg twins. This would be the first of a number of uncharacteristic baserunning mistakes committed by the Cardinals in this one.

We jump to the 6th now, the score still in favour of the home team (Kelowna) 2 to 1, with Osborn on the mound (who relieved Kohlen in the 4th due to a 45 pitch count) #36 for Kelowna was pitching well as he had stymied West Coast's bats for a couple innings and was looking to continue that success into the 6th. Yuen who had been doing an unbelievable job on the mound keeping his team in the ballgame helped his own cause by hitting a leadoff single that softly fell in the "Bermuda Triangle" of Kelowna fielders. The Cardinals looked poised for a big inning as Baybay would promptly single on the first pitch he saw putting runners at 1st and 2nd with none out. With Crozier subbed in for Hendriks with true intentions of sacrificing, Yuen was back-doored by A. Renneberg (Kelowna's catcher) for the 1st out leading to another baserunning miscue by the Cardinals. Crozier and Kang failed to bring Baybay around as the Cardinals now were down to their last 3 outs. Still 2-1 Kelowna after 5 1/2 innings.

A fielding error by the pitcher, Yuen proved to be moot as the first-year Burnaby resident would finish the 6th off by getting Kohlen to fly out to Suzuki in RF and now he could only hope he'd throw another inning as his squad in the white digital dri-fits were down 1 with 3 outs to go. 

Coming into today's game vs. Kelowna, the Cardinals had never came back to win a ball game when trailing after 5 innings. Badger for the Sun Devils was called on from the 'pen to close out the game and record the 3 out SV, but first he had to deal with a scrappy Cardinal lineup. West Coast's catcher (New) and one of the most pleasant offensive surprises this season so far, got the rally started with a solid single through the left side infield hole to lead off the inning. With A. Renneberg (Kelowna's catcher and arguably one of the strongest catchers in the league) praying that New would steal 2nd, Yam would sub Symons in for Powell as it took Symons 3 pitches to execute a beautiful sacrifice bunt moving New into scoring position and 1 out. West Coast's on-base percentage (OBP) leader and 9-batter, Miles was now up, #47 from Vancouver Minor would battle Badger for a 7 pitch walk putting 2 runners on with 1 out. West Coast's leadoff batter, Turnbull was up next, with 2 strikes on Turnbull and Yam anticipating a Badger breaking ball followed by a A. Renneberg frame, the manager called a risky double steal with 1 out and a 2-2 count on Turnbull, the read turned out to be perfect as the domino fell, breaking ball just outside for a ball, hard frame by Renneberg and a stellar head-first slide by New to the outside part of the 3rd base bag, New (the tying run) barely safe at 3rd and Miles (go-ahead run) standing on 2nd. With the Kelowna infield now in, Turnbull would go down looking on a full count, leaving it in the hands of Tri-City Bantam AAA returnee, Kenny Sugi and 2 out. The 5'5 120 Cardinal would fall behind 1-2 to Badger, meaning the Cardinals were down to their last strike; however, on the 4th pitch of the at-bat Sugi would shorten up and knock a ball that just got through the right side of the infield past a diving Kelowna second baseman, New (tying run) would score easily as Yam aggressively waved Miles (go-ahead run) home as Miles beat out the throw from the RF. The Cardinals had just taken the lead (3-2) thanks to a clutch 2 RBI single by the veteran Kenneth Sugi. 

Yuen would get the first two batters of the bottom half of the 7th to lazily fly out to freshly subbed Fukuoka in RF and retire the side in order getting Osborn to strike out on a slider to end the ball game. 3-2 West Coast Final.

Kelowna 5 CARDINALS 10

Fresh off an exhilarating "W" the Cardinals sent Sugi to the bump who was looking to rebound from a subpar start his last time out against Richmond. Kelowna decided not to send either of the Renneberg twins to the mound but rather Melissa Rambold to square off against Sugi. Sugi would work around a double by Badger to retire the side. In the bottom half of the 1st, Sugi would help out his own cause by smacking an opposite field double to the gap scoring Turnbull from second with ease. Baybay would drive Sugi in with an RBI single. 2-0 Cards after 1. 

The second inning saw one of Kelowna's top players, the athletic Castro hit a hard grounder back where it came from for a single. #14 with blue and red stirrups would use his pure speed to steal 2nd and 3rd despite numerous attempted pickoffs by Sugi and the West Coast defence. Sugi would strike out the two hitters that followed Castro, with 2 outs and Castro now on 3rd, everyone in the park new Castro was daring enough and fast enough to steal home. That's exactly what the speed demon did, on a 1-2 count to Osborn he took off for home on a throwback to the mound, Sugi took his eye off the ball for a slight moment letting the ball tip off the end of his glove as Castro single-handedly got Kelowna their first run. Sugi would strike Osborn out swinging on the very next pitch as the crafty and cunning right-hander walked off the mound with a head shake and disappointed look.The Cardinals failed to cash in a run at 3rd with less than 2 outs in their half of the 2nd inning. 2-1 Cards after 2.

The West Coast defence failed to support Sugi on the mound in the 3rd inning as Kelowna's leadoff batter in the inning reached base due to a error at 1B, with the runner now at 2nd with 2 out, the Cardinals botched a routine grounder as an errant throw led to a gift of a run to the Sun Devils. With the score tied going into the bottom of the 3rd, Turnbull would walk for the second time in as many at-bats and would promptly advance to third due to an errant pickoff throw. Sugi wasted no time driving the run in as an RBI groundout meant a 3-2 lead for the home team (West Coast) after 3.

With a number of "1" and "2" runs scored per inning in the first 3 innings, Kelowna finally got the big inning they were patiently waiting for all day as they would score 3 in their half of the 4th. Castro would burn the Cardinals yet again as he smacked a 1-out double down the 3rd base line, a walk and RBI single by starting pitcher, Rambold knotted things up at 3s. With runners now at 2nd & 3rd and 1 out, Yam decided to relieve Sugi with Miles. Osborn would lace a Miles' fastball up in the zone that just landed fair and out of the reach of a sprawling Symons in LF, two of Sugi's runs would easily score from the 1-out base knock but Symons would pick himself up, pick up the ball on the warning track and throw a one hop strike to Baybay at 3rd to nab Osborn from collecting himself a triple. Neverthless, it was 5-3 Kelowna after 3 1/2 innings. 

The Cardinals would not let the 3 run inning from Kelowna faze them as Hendriks would hit a single to leadoff the inning. The talented first-year stole 2nd and 3rd with ease while Miles gladly made his way down to 1st with his team-leading 15th walk of the season. Fukuoka was not even contested with as he was walked on 4 pitches no where near the zone. This forced Przybyl (Kelowna's head coach) to relieve Rambold with Lamb as the bases were still juiced and none out. Symons would hit an RBI infield single to bring West Coast within 1. Powell would pinch hit for Crozier and hit a SAC fly scoring Miles and knotting the game up at 5s. Leadoff hitter, Turnbull would turn on Lamb's fastball and hit it well foul into the LF foul territory tennis courts, Lamb came back with the exact same pitch in the exact same location and Turnbull this time didn't make the same mistake as he drove the ball into the L-CF gap scoring a run with the RBI double. Sugi would promptly drive Symons in from 3rd with a SAC fly, giving the Cards a 7-5 lead after 4.

Hendriks, Miles and Fukuoka would hit back-to-back-to-back singles in the 5th, Symons and Powell would get the job done with a RBI groundout and 2 RBI double respectively. 10-5 Cardinals after 5. Miles, Crozier and Suzuki were effective on the bump in relief as each hurler didn't allow a run. With 2 outs in the 7th, Suzuki would get Badger to groundout to Hendriks, Hendriks although having an easy force at 2 decided to gun Badger out at 1st, doing it the hard way...much like how the West Coast Cardinals played out the two games today, sweeping the Sun Devils in stressful, difficult and unconventional fashion.

The West Coast Cardinals brought the sun to the interior and the hot, muggy weather proved to be a factor in both games for the boys based out of the Lower Mainland. The players and coaching staff were relieved with the outcomes from the two games today, definitely not pleased with the number of baserunning miscues in game 1 and then the number of fielding errors in game 2. Kelowna showed that they were a scrappy team giving West Coast a run for their money, Kelowna is now off to play Chilliwack in Chilliwack while the Cardinals would take on Kamloops the very next day.