On a chilly and wet evening, with their loyal fans jam packed in the stands, the Cardinals came to play and defeated the Yankees 11-8 to clinch the Cloverdale Mosquito regular season championship.

Led by their team veteran, Thomas "The Closer" Chattaway who went 3 for 3 at the plate and struck out the last 3 batters he faced to seal the victory, the Cardinals stuck to their game plan and wrestled the Championship from the Evil Blue Empire.

Facing some extremely difficult conditions on the slipery mound, "Tanneriffic Carmont" battled hard as he allowed only one run in the first inning. He worked some defensive Magic with Zach Poole to retire the Yankees top hitters.

Pumped by their starter's performance, the Cardinals hitters jumped on the Yankees for 4 run in their turn at the plate. Kaiden "The Hammer" McCreedy led the charge with his shortest hit of the year which turned into a triple when the Yankees catchers overthrew the ball to right field. After Poole and Carmont drew walks, Chattaway came to bat and ripped a single to right field to give the Cards a 3-0 lead. He then turned on the after burners and stole second and third and scored the final run of the inning when Sheardown drove him home.

Vulcano then came in relief and struggled with the slippery mound and walked the first 2 batters he faced and allowed a run on a wild pitch. Ground Crews were called in, and after some mound work, "The Lava Master" rediscovered his mighty fastball and proceeded to stike out the next 3 batters.

In the second inning, the Cardinals loaded the bases when Cork took one for the team, Hampton hit, and "Smiley" Faul walked. Unfortunaley, Only Cork would score when Poole came thru with a clutch single.

With the rain coming down heavily, Vulcano returned to the mound and struggled with his control unable to use his powerful legs on the slippery mound. With the bases loaded, Dylan "Mowe'm Down"  Sheardown was called in relief. After struggling to find his footing, Sheardown came thru and allowed only two runs to come in in a very gutsy performance.

In their turn at bat, Chattaway returned to the plate with another solid single, Sheardown and Robichaud proceeded to load the bases and Cork and Hampton came thru and each knocked in an RBI. Faul loaded the bases again but the Red Birds could not cash in the extra runs.

Still fighting the conditions in the fourth, the Cardinals allowed 4 runs and relinquished the lead to the yankees for the first time in the game. After the umpires declared that the game would be shorten to 5 innings, the Yankees brought in their All-Star closer in the hope of securing the championship. The resilient young  Cardinals had other plans however...

Poole led off with a hard fought walk, Vulcano followed with another 8 pitch walk to plant the seed of doubt in the Yankees' Closer head. Carmont then followed with an infield hit to load the bases to set the table for Chattaway. Focused and determined to lead his team to the championship, he rapped a hard single down the middle to give his team the lead again. Sheardown then stepped in the box with confidence and hit a hard foul ball. The Yankees closer, thinking that he could intimidate the young rookie, uncorked the wildest wild pitch of the season as he hit the backstop so hard that the ball bounced all the way to 3rd base. Carmont and Chattaway would score two runs on the pitcher's largesse to end the inning.

Now leading by 3 runs, the Cardinals sent "The Closer" in for the win.the  After giving a walk to start the inning, Chattaway adjusted and proceeded to strike out the next 3 battters to secure the Regular Season Championship for his team.

The coaches are very proud of their team, and the way they played all season long. Now they believe their team is primed for a long run in the playoffs starting Monday.