A’s hoist host trophy

The Bardo Athletics ended the Leduc Milleteers reign of Bardo Day on Saturday, June 8, and I’m citing divine intervention from a Stauffer above.

The baseball Bardo Gods were present on a day that began and ended soggy, with a bit of sunshine in the middle.

A perfect end to the 2012 edition for the home side – the 109th Bardo Day.

In a shrewd move not seen before by this reporter, the host A’s chose to play the second game of the day against a team that has gone 4-2, including three wins in a row this season, against them in the Armena Royals.

The Royals looked distracted by the smeel of sweet rhubarb pie, making several errors and seeing the supposedly “retired’ Ray Lehman do what he does best. Wow the Bardo grey hairs.

Following a muddy Leduc 7-1 win over Ryley, Bardo’s Lehman mixed and matched to fan and foil Royal batters en route to an 18-2 route of the boys in blue. The game highlighted by three Lehman-to-Neufeld putouts in the third frame capped by a leaping, spinning, chucking Lehman on the third and final out of the inning on a Landon Miller swinging bunt.

“I think that’s the only way I could have got him,” Lehman said after. “It was too wet, I would have slid. When I got back to the dugout everyone was asking why I didn’t stop and plant. ‘I couldn’t’ I told them.”

After the Royals rebounded with a couple ringers from the Camrose Roadrunners and a Bardo Athletic, much to the dismay of the Rebels, the A’s and Milleteers took to the field in yet another Bardo Day finale.

Wind, rain and scary clouds circled the diamond. At game time, it looked inevitable the game would be called. With the rain falling, and Bardo at bat, the Milleteers fumbled a wet ball and the A’s mounted a 2-0 lead before a 30-minute rain delay.

Then, surprisingly, it was calm and beautiful again. The pitchers, Murray Doyle and Ryan Oleson settled in and chucked wonderfully. The defences were lights out. Leduc scrapped back and tied the game 2-2 heading to seven.

And there were the Bardo spirits again. Rain beginning to drizzle in the seventh as the A’s knocked in the winning run in walk-off fashion for their first host win since this reporter returned from the south.

On a day when seemingly everything came up Bardo – the weather, the calls, the lucky plays and the clutch ones, it just seemed like their year to win their own tournament again finally. And that’ll happen from time-to-time with 109 years of history on your side.

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Jason Buzzell