Down But Not Out: For The 3rd Time In Their Last 5 Games, Cardinals Come From Behind To Win; West Coast Defeats North Shore 3-2 Under The Lights at Bird

The inaugural North Shore Padres made a trip out to Port Coquitlam's immaculate Bird Field for a Wednesday night clash vs. the league-leading West Coast Cardinals. Due to the cancellation of last Wednesday's game (due to weather), this was the first of four divisional matchups between these two teams and the Wednesday night rivalry under the lights at Bird Field did not disappoint for all those that attended.

North Shore 2 CARDINALS 3

Yuen got the start in this one, #11 with the long white "Under Amour" baseball pants was looking for his team-leading 7th W of the season, every game Yuen has started but one he had been credited with the "Win", he was looking to keep up the success. Steve Armistead (North Shore head coach) and the North Shore Padres are in the league (and BC Minor) for the first time ever and have already made strong impressions by mercying Chilliwack earlier in the season. 

The first inning saw North Shore who were wearing their sharp white "NS" jerseys with name bar on the back jump on the board first. Gatzke, the Padres' leadoff hitter would take the 2nd pitch (1st pitch in the zone) delivered by Yuen back where it came from for a leadoff single to get things started. A steal of 2nd by Gatzke and single by last year's Burnaby Bantam AA's Laroche sandwhiched a strikeout to Blackwood. Now with runners at the corners and 1 out, the Padres called for a first pitch hit and run with 4-batter Baker at the plate. The ball was hit up the middle softly by Baker, corralled together by Hendriks who's foot barely beat Laroche's to the second base and with Baker barely halfway down the line, Hendriks overshot his man at first as the inning-ending double play was averted and North Shore would go up 1 on the E6 after a half inning. 

It wouldn't take the Cardinals long to get that single run back as Turnbull (West Coast's leadoff hitter), much like Gatzke would turn on the second pitch delivered by the starter for a solid base hit. With the 3rd baseman behind the bag, Sugi attempted a bunt but got just a little too much on it, as Edmonds (Padres' 3rd baseman) would throw Sugi out at 1st by a step on the SAC bunt. Turnbull would steal 3rd without contest from North Shore and promptly be driven in by Yuen as Yuen would collect his team-leading 20th RBI of the season on the grounder to SS. 1-1 after 1.

The second inning saw West Coast repeat the same mistakes that they despised of over the weekend which was baserunning miscues, Carrera (AA catcher callup for North Shore) would gun Powell out attempting to take 3rd on a ball in the dirt which was not read well, thus ending the inning and keeping the score knotted up at 1s after 2.

With 1 out in the 3rd and Gatzke back up at the plate, the West Coast coaching staff thought after fooling North Shore's leadoff hitter with a 1st pitch slider, a high fastball would be in order, thinking Gatzke would have no chance at catching up to a high fastball by Yuen, Gatzke surprisingly wasn't sitting on the slider he just missed but rather fastball as he drove the high pitch straight up the middle again for his second hit of the day. The single would become moot though as Gatzke was immediately picked off at 1st killing North Shore's momentum. In a surprising move, Armistead would burn all his subs during the middle of the 3rd inning, including replacing starting pitcher, Holtzman for lefty Nakamura. Nakamura, who had evidently had 3 pitches working for him including a lively fastball had no problems sitting down Miles and Turnbull to lead off the inning. Both Sugi and Yuen worked walks to bring up the cleanup stick, Baybay with 2 runners in scoring position and 2 out. Baybay would drive a 1-0 fastball by Nakamura to deep centre but Gatzke would burn the Cardinals again as he tracked to his right to make the grab. Still 1-1 after 3. 

Laroche would lead off the inning by obtaining his second hit of the night by hitting a swinging bunt single on a slider that he was completely fooled on. 2 strikeouts sandwhiched a walk and with runners at 1st and 2nd and 2 out, Armistead called for a risky double steal which was executed perfectly putting two runners in scoring position for AA callup Carrera. Carrera and Yuen both played on the same team last year for Burnaby Peewee AAA and Yuen was looking for revenge after Carrera hit a soft bloop single his last time up, this time the stakes were a little higher with the go-ahead run at 3rd. Carrera wouldn't need to take a pitch to score the run, as Yuen would balk in his second run of the season (team-leading 3rd balk), he would settle down and get Carrera looking to end the half inning. West Coast threatened in the bottom of the 4th but again another baserunning miscue killed the momentum and the inning as the Padres were up 2-1 after 4.

Yuen who for the second straight outing lacked the run support despite another great start, the top of the 5th saw #11 from West Coast sit down the North Shore side in order, now just hoping he could get some offense which his wish was granted. With Nakamura stymieing the Cardinal bats, it would be West Coast's 9-batter Miles who would spark the offense. Miles did not want to see that curveball Nakamura had been featuring late in counts so as a result #47 from the Cardinals ambushed the first pitch he saw and drove it over the head of Baker at first for a leadoff single. Miles would advance to 2nd on a pass ball and advance to 3rd on a balk by Nakamura. The Cardinals were poised to strike with a runner at 3rd and none out. To increase their chances of scoring, Yam opted for the fastest player on the team, Suzuki to sub for Miles at 3rd. With 1 out and Sugi up, the veteran left-handed batter would foul off two tough pitches down 0-2 and work the count back to 2-2, the 7th pitch Sugi saw was a mistake fastball by Nakamura as Sugi drove the ball past a drawn-in North Shore infield scoring Suzuki easily. It wouldn't take Sugi long to see Yam at 3rd base as Sugi would advance to 2nd on a wild pitch, then promptly steal 3rd. As we all know, what goes around comes back around, Nakamura didn't fully come set and was called for a costly balk (much like Yuen a few innings ago) as Sugi trotted home giving West Coast the lead after 5. 

With Yuen slowly creeping up on his 95 pitch count, the first-year import looked stronger than ever as he would catch Gatzke looking on an 0-2 slider to lead off the inning and retire North Shore's 1-batter for the first time this game, Yuen would then sit Fleurant and Laroche via. the backward K as well, striking out the side with 7 pitches remaining until the 95 limit. 

With 7 pitches remaining, Yuen trotted back out to the mound to face cleanup hitter Baker who he had not looked comfortable in the box vs. Yuen; however, Baker would get a hold of a 1-0 meatball as the ball landed on the warning track for a thunderous double to lead off the inning. With no subs available, Armistead was forced to have a slow Baker try to score from 2nd with none out. With the count 3-1 on North Shore's 5-batter Ozolins, Yuen threw back-to-back sliders to catch Ozolins looking giving him a whopping 13 strikeouts on the day. It was now up to Miles to take home the final 2 outs, Miles would see a fat fastball thrown to Lalani crushed to centre but right at Sugi for the 2nd out keeping Baker (tying run) still at 2nd and 2 out. It would take Miles just 4 pitches to get Carrera swinging on a high and outside fastball to end the ballgame. 3-2 Cards over North Shore FINAL.

Yuen was exceptional yet again earning his 7th W of the season with a 13 strikeout performance, Miles was efficient earning the SV. The Cardinals came from behind to win another game, in their last 5 games they have now done this 3 times. A lot of work still needs to be done, and many parts of their game have to be fine-tuned as the road doesn't get any easier. 3rd place Chilliwack visits Bird on Saturday for a double-header with the Richmond May Long Invitational to follow.