Cardinals Become First Team To Reach The 20 Win Plateau This Season; Yuen Strikes Out 13 Chuckers and Throws a Complete Game Shutout Enroute To a Clean 6-0 Victory Over Richmond

Posted June 7, 2017


Cardinals Become First Team To Reach The 20 Win Plateau This Season; Yuen Strikes Out 13 Chuckers and Throws a Complete Game Shutout Enroute To a Clean 6-0 Victory Over Richmond

The West Coast Cardinals visited Blundell Park for their 3rd of 4 meetings this season with divisonal foe Richmond Chuckers. The Cards sent Yuen to the mound as the Chuckers for the 3rd time in a row sent Dodds-Eng to oppose a deep West Coast lineup, both teams showed lack of energy or life throughout the entirety of the ballgame. In the end, the Cardinals decisively took this road matchup 6-0 over the hometown Chuckers.

 

CARDINALS 6 Richmond 0

The Richmond Chuckers led by 5 Tool Baseball's Shawn Hetherington and Jack Thompson elected to send Kyle Dodds-Eng to the mound for the third time in a row. Dodds-Eng was effective the first time he faced the Cardinals picking up the win but second time around was shelled for 9 earned runs in a blowout 10-0 loss against the aforementioned Cardinals during round robin play at the 2017 RCBA Queen Victoria Invitational. Much to everyone's surprise, Dodds-Eng toed the rubber once again while Yuen opposed him for West Coast in what would be a rematch of the tournament pool play game just under a month ago. 

West Coast had a couple shakeups at the top of the order to begin this contest; however, Dodds-Eng had no problem retiring Sugi, Turnbull and Hendriks to kick off the ballgame. Yuen was spectacular last time out when faced with the task of battling McGill and his Richmond Chuckers going 5 1/3 allowing no runs on 3 hits and racking up 7 strikeouts in the process. Yuen would blow a fastball by Richmond's leadoff hitter, Hikida for his first out of the game but see McGill on the very next pitch drive it right back up the middle for the game's first baserunner. On his second pickoff attempt, Yuen would get McGill leaning towards second and pick off one of the league's top baserunners for the second out of the inning. Yuen would work around a Finkelstein infield single and strikeout Lenihan for the third out of the inning. Tied at zeros after 1 complete.

A West Coast offence which scored 21 runs a night before against a young Langley Blaze Black team would come to life in the 2nd inning courtesy of the bottom of the order. Dodds-Eng would walk Baybay to lead off the inning, his first of 4 free passes today. After a Baybay stolen base, Yuen would "get off the schneid" and hit a hard single down the 3rd base line off a sprawling Houston's glove as Baybay's foot would barely beat Houston's glove to the bag putting runners on the corners with none out. A walk to the Cardinal catcher, New would set up bases loaded and still none out for Powell who would prompty hit an RBI single through the left side. 8-batter Crozier despite falling behind 0-2 would continue his recent hot streak at the plate and hit an RBI single himself making it 2-0. Suzuki would hit an RBI groundout and watch as Chucker first baseman Salazar overshoot McGill at home but McGill would quickly hustle over to the overthrown ball and flip onto Dodds-Eng tagging Powell out at home trying to score West Coast's 4th run of the inning. Houston led off the offensive second for the Chuckers and would roll over the Yuen offering chopping a weakly hit ball between the mound, shortstop and third base. Baybay would charge hard, barehand the bouncing ball and throw Houston out at 1st putting a red star beside the 5-3 putout in the scorebooks. 3-0 Cards after 2.

The top of the 3rd saw Hendriks reach first on a fielder's choice and alertly move over to 2nd on an errant throw by Chuckers' second baseman, Hepburn who was attempting a 5-4-3 double play. Clean-up hitter Baybay would then jump on the first pitch delivered by Dodds-Eng and smack it into deep right as Hendriks would score from second with ease. Yuen would continue his dominance over Richmond as on 8 pitches he would strikeout Kawai, strikeout his counterpart Dodds-Eng and get Matsunuma to fly out to Sugi in CF. 4-0 Cards after 3.

The Cardinals, who were wearing their white digital camos with the navy "Carnarvon" hats would tack on another run in the 5th, Sugi would reach on a dropped third strike to lead off the top of the 5th, swipe 2nd and then move over to 3rd on a shallow single by Hendriks. Hendriks would take advantage on a weak lob back into the infield by Chuckers' left fielder Hikida, aggressively taking off for 2nd as the Chuckers would react late and throw the ball into centre field trying to nab Hendriks at 2nd which easily let Sugi jog home from 3rd.  Yuen would look even stronger on the mound in the 5th than he did in the 4th as the first-year stud would strike out the side in order, bringing his K total up to double digits for the game. 5-0 Cards after 5.

Houston would come in to relieve Dodds-Eng in the 6th, retiring Symons on the good ol' 9-3 putout to kick off the inning giving Chuckers' right fielder Finkelstein two assists in this contest. Finkelstein's Chuckers would then threaten to score in their half of the 6th as Kawai would single through the right side to lead off for Richmond, 10-batter Dolphin would take advantage of one too many fastballs and hit a solid single up the middle. A deep Hikida fly out to centre field let Kawai tag up to 3rd making it a total of 2 Richmond baserunners to reach 3rd base tonight. With the dangerous McGill up and runners at the corners with 2 out, it suddenly turned into a big at-bat in a game that was dull up until this point. In the first inning, McGill hit a belt high changeup up the middle but this time on a 1-0 count Yuen would execute a perfect shin high changeup getting the second-year vet McGill to hit a sharp grounder to Miles at 1st for a big 3U putout to end the inning. 5-0 Cards after 6. 

Baybay would pick up his team-leading 35th RBI as he would knock home Turnbull with a hard single up the middle off Houston in the top of the 7th, making it 6-0 Cardinals. With 12 pitches remaining, Yuen was determined to throw his 3rd complete game of the year. Yuen would work around a hard Lenihan double to the right-centre gap and go on to strikeout Hepburn on his 97th pitch of the ballgame for the final out and picking up the presitgious honour of a complete game shutout. 

 

Yuen was at his best today, had full command of 3 pitches throwing a complete game shutout scattering 6 hits, allowing no free passes and picking up 13 strikeouts along the way. Yuen becomes the first Cardinal pitcher to record double digits in wins as he improves to 10-0 in 10 starts. In a game that seemed to be lacking in emotion for both teams, the Cardinals took advantage of a Chucker squad who just wasn't into it from first pitch. It was a clean 6-0 victory, with the middle of the order coming through with 6 of the 10 hits. Baybay carried over the success he had at the most recent BC Baseball 15U Development Camp as the clean-up hitter for the Cardinals reached base all four times and finished 3-3 with a double and 2 RBIs. West Coast becomes the first team to reach the 20 win plateau this season and improves to 20-5 (.800 W%) in the 2017 Bantam AAA season. With 7 games remaining, the road to clinching 1st in the league is far from over; Victoria Red will do their best to slow down the Cardinals as they visit Nanaimo Park for a Saturday afternoon double header.



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