Cardinals Place 1st in Pool By Running The Table Through Round Robin Play at This Year's RCBA Queen Victoria Invitational

It was finally here! The Delta Tigers were looking to repeat as champions, Okotoks was looking for revenge after failing to defend their 2015 title falling at the hands of Frick's Tigers in last year's semi-final, Richmond determined to win it all on their home turf for the first time in ever? While West Coast were itching to etch the inaugural "West Coast Cardinals" on the 2017 RCBA Queen Victoria Invitational trophy. The round robin play had everything you could hope for, blowouts, upsets, nail-biters and even a forfeit. At the end of day, 3/4 teams you expected to advance to Monday's playoff did (West Coast, Delta, Okotoks), with hometown Richmond nabbing that last spot.

Calgary 1 CARDINALS 5 (Round Robin Game 1/4)

No one knew what to expect from this Calgary team, but that's the beauty of tournaments and the Cardinals took no chances throwing arguably one of their most reliable arms to kick off the tournament play for them. Crozier has been excellent all year, with close resemblances to Marco Estrada from the Toronto Blue Jays, Crozier has had a simple mentality to year all year so far, give me the pitch, the location and I'll throw it there, I'll pitch to contact and limit damage by living down in the zone and continue to keep batters off balance. Calgary gave Crozier a scare in the top half of the 1st, Calgary's 3-4 hitters smacked back-to-back line drive singles but Crozier would calm the noise by striking out the 5 batter to end the early threat. West Coast wasted no time at all getting on the board as leadoff hitter Turnbull and Sugi went back-to-back with solid singles, then execute a clean double steal; both runners would come home on a pass ball and groundout respectively. 2-0 Cardinals after 1. 7 pitches (F8, F7, F8), that's all it would take Crozier to get through his half of the 2nd, Cardinals' catcher, New, would continue the great offensive season he'd been having for the Cards with a rare pull line drive single and eventually score on Turnbull's second hit of the game. 3-0 Cards after 2. Calgary would put two runners on with none out in their half of the 3rd but again Crozier was a magician getting a strikeout and inducing a couple groundouts while only allowing one of those two baserunners to score. Yuen would lead off West Coast's offensive half of the 3rd inning with a line drive just to the right of the 3rd base bag, and eventually would put another jab in the side of the Cubs by scoring on a wild pitch. 4-1 Cards after 3. 

It was evident that Crozier didn't have his best stuff today but the kid battled exploited what was working and limited the use of what wasn't continuing to keep the ball down in the zone and induce weak groundouts and flyouts. It would only take Crozier 6 pitches to get through the 4th thanks to the cleanest groundball double play turned by the Cards this season, a sharp 6-4-3 double that got them out of the inning. Crozier would benefit from another run of support thanks to a Suzuki SAC fly in the 5th scoring Yuen who got on with his second hit of the game. Kang and Suzuki would share the 7th inning duties on the mound to finish off the game as it definitely wasn't the most exciting ball game but it was a clean "W" for the Cardinals to kick off the tournament, something they needed as the road was only going to get tougher.

GAME MVP: #6 Finn Crozier

6 innings pitched in 72 pitches, 1 R (0 ER), 4 K, 0 BB

Richmond 0 CARDINALS 10 (Round Robin Game 2/4)

Battle of the 1-0 teams, Richmond fresh off an exciting come-from-behind team against one of the top teams in the league, Chilliwack, the upset putting Chilliwack in an immediate hole to start the tournament. With Finkelstein getting the start for Richmond against Chilliwack, West Coast was positive that Houston would get the nod in this one for the hometown Chuckers but instead Richmond turned heads by starting Dodds-Eng who was credited with the "W" going 4 innings for Richmond when they played West Coast in a rain-shortened season game on a wet, depressing afternoon in late April. 

The Cardinals sent arguably their top gun to toe the rubber, Max Yuen. Yuen showed he was human early by walking Hikida, Richmond's leadoff batter on 7 pitches and the Cardinal killer, McGill (April 29th DH - 5/6, 3 R, BB, 2B, 3B, 3 SB) followed the walk up by hitting a changeup right back where it came from. With two runners on and none out, Houston would hit a soft line drive to 1st baseman Symons for the first out, Finkelstein would fly out to Sugi in CF then Thursday's walk-off hero, Skylar Lenihan would softly poke an outside pitch to Symons for an easy U3 putout, as West Coast would escape the early jam. 

After getting the first two Cardinal hitters to roll over, Dodds-Eng would see Yuen help himself out by sitting back and driving a pitch to right for their first hit of the game. Two pitches later he stole second with ease and then the aforementioned Yuen would score from 2nd on a Baybay groundball that never got through the infield as Yam would have Yuen aggressively challenge Chuckers' shortstop McGill who had slipped around the second base bag fielding Baybay's batted ball, Yuen would make it home without a throw for a 1-0 lead after 1. The second inning proved to be much more anti-climatic for both teams, Yuen's would sit Hepburn, Cole and Kawai down striking out the side while the Cardinals were held at bay in their offensive half of the second. 

The third saw Yuen sit down Dodds-Eng and leadoff hitter Hikida on strikes making it 5 K's in a row and now facing the ideal, McGill with no one on and 2 out, a pitch in on McGill's hands got him to hit a weak grounder to Crozier at 2nd to retire the side. From one veteran McGill to another in Kenneth Sugi, Dodds-Eng threw a very well executed fastball on the outside part of the plate putting Sugi in a 2-2 count, Dodds-Eng would try to stretch that outside corner further by Sugi was not going to risk getting rung-up as he slapped the pitch hard down the left field line for a double to lead off the 3rd. Yuen would follow that up with a single of his own scoring Sugi from the 2nd with ease, it wouldn't take long for Yuen to come around as Baybay followed suit with a base hit making it 3-0 Cards after 3. 

The Chuckers looked like they were going to have something started as Houston would lace a double down the right field line to lead off the inning; however two groundouts sandwiched a strikeout as Yuen would strand Houston on third keeping it at 3-0 after 4. Richmond would threaten again in the 5th, with 2 out 9-batter and starting pitcher Dodds-Eng would reach on a error by the Cardinals shortstop, Hikida would hit a double over the head of Sugi in centre putting two runners in scoring position with 2 out and Cardinal killer McGill once again looming at the plate. With McGill being the tying run, Houston (on-deck) already hitting a double off Yuen and a hard pitch count limit of 75, an intentional walk with 2 outs wasn't going to be a favourable option to the crafty and talented McGill. The 0-0 cutter delivered by Yuen yet again jammed McGill this time the Chucker shortstop got more bat on the ball but the tall grass on the Blundell South diamond sucked the ball right up as it made it another routine play for Cardinal second baseman, Crozier. Richmond's best chance at coming back in this ballgame had been thwarted. 3-0 Cards after 4 1/2 innings.

From there, the Cardinal offense took full control of the game and put this game to bed. 6 hits by the Cardinals and 5 walks issued by Dodds-Eng and Abraham (Richmond's relief pitcher) had West Coast scoring 7 runs in the final two innings and closing the book on a game that was actually close for the first 4 1/2 innings. Kang would pitch the final 2/3 of an inning striking out 2/3 batters he faced in relief of Yuen who was yet again phenomenal.

GAME MVP: #11 Max Yuen

5 1/3 innings pitched in 72 pitches, 0 R, 7 K, 3 H, 1 BB

2/3 at the plate 2 R, RBI, SB

CARDINALS 5 Chilliwack 4 (Round Robin Game 3/4)

The West Coast Cardinals came into Sunday action at the Victoria Day tournament in Richmond needing a win in one of their two remaining games to clinch a semi-final berth on Monday. Their opponents would be Chilliwack and Parkland, both possessing 2-1 records ahead of their clashes with the Cards. With that in mind, if the Cards had any hopes of finishing at the top of Pool A, they would need to win both games on Sunday, seeing as a tie at 3-1 with either team would have them finish second due to the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Cards didn’t quite know what to expect from Parkland in the late game on the South Diamond, but the same can’t be said for Chilliwack, who played them tough for 14 innings last weekend in their only meeting in league play. They knew they were going to be in for a close one, but nobody could have predicted it to turn out as close as it did in the end.

In a must-win situation, Chilliwack sent Jude Hall, their stud and arguably ace of the staff, to the mound with full intentions of burning him for a potential semi-final scenario on Monday. The Cards didn't see him pitch last weekend in PoCo and Chilliwack never saw Hendriks, who got the start for the Cards despite a sizeable bandage visible on peeking out of his glove due to an minor injury to his catching hand. The two teams traded single runs in a first inning that saw the Cards’ veterans take control. With a full count on Sugi, Jude Hall decided that a cutter in on Sugi would be the best pitch to get him on, the selection was the right one but the execution was far from it as the first cutter Hall threw of the day drilled Sugi as #3 would wear it on the calf and bodly later swipe second with two out. Baybay drove him in with a shot just over the bag and past the first baseman into right field for a double, giving Hendriks an early lead to work with. Navigating the top half of Chilliwack’s order wouldn’t be an easy task, quality left-handed bats occupying the #1 through #4 spots in the lineup. Hendriks retired the leadoff hitter, but allowed the next three batters to reach on a pair of comebackers that he couldn’t quite corral followed by a walk. With their first righty now at the plate, Chilliwack would attempt a safety squeeze. The Cougars’ hitter bunted through the ball, leaving his teammate, the speedy Cougar Hall in no-man’s land down the third baseline. Catcher New fired to Baybay at third base, but he double-clutched, something you can ill afford to do with the sparkplug Jude Hall on the bases, the aforementioned Hall slid into home safely, tying the game at 1 after 1.

Chilliwack took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the 3rd as a two-out walk came around to score thanks to a misplayed liner to left (which would have been the third out) and a pass ball. They carried this lead into the top of the 5th, where Sugi and Baybay would once again grab the bull by the horns. Sugi delivered a one-out single, then stole two more bags to land himself at third. With two out and a 1-2****on Baybay, Sugi shocked everybody watching by taking off for home! Hall was forced to change his breaking-ball grip to fastball and throw it down the can. Sugi had to slow himself down as Baybay took full advantage of the two-strike fastball down the middle lacing it up the middle for his second RBI of the game, but more importantly tying the game up at twos. In the bottom half, Hendriks executed an exceptional changeup but Hall barely reached on the dropped third strike tripping over Suzuki at 1st and tumbling to the ground after touching first, Hall then barely avoided being caught stealing at second albeit a grade-A throw by Fukuoka, everyone thought Fukuoka had thrown out Hall at 2...everyone but the one guy that mattered, either way Hall was now standing on two. With one out now and Hendriks in the midst of intentionally walking the Cougars’ cleanup hitter, Diego Colebourne with 1st base open, Hendriks attempted a pick-off move to second. The throw got by the shortstop, Yuen into centre field and Hall immediately took off for third, but was gunned down by Sugi from centre, who alertly charged the ball hard and fired a laser to Baybay at third for a huge out that helped keep the game tied. This momentum changing out at third would help the bottom of the Cards’ order came to life in the 6th. Fukuoka worked a one-out walk, then Crozier slapped one to shallow centre that the centre-fielder charged hard and laid out for, but the ball fell in and rolled behind him, allowing Fukuoka to advance to third and Crozier to trot into second. Suzuki then skyed one to shallow left with Fukuoka tagging up at third, just beating the throw that rolled in a little too late as the Cards took a 3-2 lead. Chilliwack appealed at third base to no avail before a fuming Deleon (Chilliwack's head coach) had a relieve an equally fuming Hall from his pitching duties because he had exceeded his maximum pitch count.

The Cards weren’t done there, looking for some insurance in the 7th. Sugi led it off with his third single of the game, then Yuen laid down an absolutely perfect bunt that found its way beyond the pitcher with the second baseman nowhere in sight, setting up runners at 1st and 3rd. Symons pinch hit for Hendriks and executed another exceptional bunt right along the first baseline, plating Sugi for his third run scored of the game and putting the Cards ahead by 2. Next up was Powell, and he smacked one into right that scored Yuen from second. The Cards would take a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the 7th, a very similar situation to game 2 of last weekend’s double-header that they eventually held on to win. One thing was for certain - Chilliwack wasn’t going down quietly.

Hendriks’ day was done after 6 complete innings and an even 100 pitches, his second consecutive two-hit outing, striking out 10 along the way, simply excellent. Symons got the ball to start the inning, but didn’t last long as his second pitch hit the #9 hitter in the helmet. With Miles on the shelf due to sickness, Yam had one lefty pitcher available and made the tough move to go to Suzuki to match up against Chilliwack’s left-handed heavy order. He struck out the leadoff batter Mendonca, but allowed the next two batters to reach on a walk and a single, loading the bases with one out, the tying run now standing on first base. He got the next guy to roll over to first base for the second out, but a run scored to make it 5-3, the tying run moving into scoring position. In a surprising move (or non-move), Deleon did not opt for extra speed at 2nd base, the runner at 2 being the tying run with 2 out and opted to leave relief pitcher Mattias Klim at 2nd to run. After Suzuki walked the next batter to reload the bases, Yam had seen enough and would call upon Sugi, making his first relief appearance of the season, to get the final out of the game. His second offering was lined into centre for a base hit. Jude Hall would score easily from third (this pulled Chilliwack within 1 run) as Turnbull came up firing from centre field and threw a no-hop bullet to the plate, Deleon was forced to hold his tying run Klim at third. The play was far from over, however, as the back runner did not pick up the stop sign from his coach and wandered all the way down near third base, forced now to hustle back to the safety of second bae. Fukuoka threw the ball down to Yuen near second, who could have tagged the back runner (an arms reach away) out at second for the final out, but instead elected to be safe and toss it back to Fukuoka and go after the lead runner (Klim) who was halfway home. One more throw was all it took to make the final out, as Fukuoka relayed it to Baybay at third who chased the runner down and put a tag on the back of his jersey to end the ballgame. Baybay would full on sprint to the Cardinal dugout with his right hand clenched high in the air signifying the end of Chilliwack's run at this tournament and a emotional nail-biting victory for West Coast. Deleon and his Chilliwack players/spectators were stunned, completely shocked at what had just transpired. The Cardinals held on to close out the most intense and entertaining game of the tournament so far, 5-4 the final. Hats off to Baybay for earning the game’s MVP medal, who drove in a couple of key runs, including the tying run in the 5th that set the tone for the later stages of the game. They now needed to quickly recover from an emotionally draining game and come through with another win a few hours later.

GAME MVP: #13 Thomas Baybay

3/4 at the plate, 2B, 2 RBIs (including game-tying RBI in the 5th)

1 A and 3 PO in the field (including a big tagout on go-ahead run Jude Hall at third base in the 5th and tagging out tying run Matthias Klim in a rundown between third and home for the final out of the game)

CARDINALS 11 Parkland 2 (Round Robin Game 4/4)

The Cards’ win earlier in the day secured them a spot in the semi-finals, so they felt safe in not burning any more pitchers for Monday. Their goal was still to come first in their pool, and they would have to get another win over the Parkland Twins to accomplish that. Luckily for the Cards, Parkland was running low on pitching, having burned likely their top 3 starters in each of their first three games. Their bats capitalized on this, as the top of their order came swinging hard out of the gate. Turnbull worked a leadoff walk, Sugi reached on an error and Yuen doubled to right - a three-run inning capped of by an RBI single from Baybay before the first out was even recorded. In the 2nd, Symons drew a one-out walk and later came around to score on a wild pitch to make it 4-0. Parkland got on the board with a pair in the bottom of the 3rd, delivering an RBI groundout to Crozier at 2B and scoring another on a pass ball. Now in the 4th, Kang led off their second of three 3-run innings with a blast over the left-fielder’s head for a double. He would score on a catcher’s overthrow to  second on a steal attempt by Fukuoka and Suzuki and Turnbull would each notch an RBI in the inning, giving the Cards a 7-2 edge. Powell began the 6th with a single, stole second and third, then scored on a wild pitch. Suzuki and Turnbull ripped back-to-back singles to start the 7th before Sugi drove them both in with an RBI triple over the right-fielder’s head. Sugi would later score on an RBI groundout by Baybay to put the Cards up by 9 runs, needing just three more outs to seal the deal. Kang worked through a bit of trouble to pick up the final three outs and clinch first place in Pool A. The only pitcher the Cardinals have burned for the semi-finals tomorrow is Hendriks - everybody else who threw in this game stayed under 45 pitches. Sugi pitched the first two, Symons pitched the next 1+ innings, then Powell took over and delivered probably his best outing of the season going three innings before Kang closed it out. Suzuki collected the MVP medal for the Cards following his best offensive performance of the season, contributing towards a much less stressful victory than earlier, 11-2 the final.

GAME MVP: #18 Taiki Suzuki

3/3 at the plate, 2 R, 2 SB

5 PO in the field


It was a very valuable thing for the Cards to walk away with a win in that nail-biter against Chilliwack, because they’re bound to experience more games like that in the near future. Their semi-final game bright and early on Monday morning will be against Delta on the South Diamond, a good old-fashioned pitcher’s duel between Euerby/McIntosh and Yuen. The other game at the same time on the North Diamond will be Okotoks vs. Richmond, who finished 2nd in Pool A by virtue of a defensive runs against tiebreaker. The two losers will play right after the semi-final games in the bronze medal game, while the two winners will play in the finals beginning at 2:30. The Cardinals know they can win this tournament, but they will have to bring their A-game like they did today in order to do so.