The Yorkton Cardinals hosted the second annual student day on Thursday, June 8. More than 700 students filled the bleachers around Jubilee Park to watch as the Cardinals played against the highway 10 rivals, the Melville Millionaires in an 11 a.m. matchup.
The students came from schools all around the region, including Saltcoats, Churchbridge, Esterhazy, as well as Yorkton schools Dr. Brass, Yorkdale Central School, St. Paul’s, St. Alphonsus, and St. Mary’s.
Not only was it an exciting day for the kids, but an exciting day for the Cardinals as they captured their first win of the 2017 season. They beat the Millionaires 4-0.
Runs came from Hank Forrest, Dondrei Hubbard and Caden Rosholt, while Jake Davidson had his first homer of the year.
The Cardinals’ winning pitcher was veteran Kody Rock from Canora. He lasted eight innings, had 16 strikeouts and 4.63 ERA.
After the game, Cardinals head coach Bryn Biancalana credited Rock for a great game.
“We had a great performance from Kody Rock and it’s what we’ve come to expect out of him. He was back to his normal self today. Any time you get a pitching effort like that, you have a good chance,” he said.
To no surprise, Biancalana was happy about getting that first win of the season.
“It feels good to get the monkey off of our back. We would have liked to get it a little earlier but it was good,” he said. “I like the way it’s coming along. We should be okay. I like our team, our lineup, our hitters are improving and I feel like we’ve gotten better every game so far.”
Rock was content with his performance during the game, with the exception of his fastball.
“I just had everything working tonight – well, kind of. My slider and curveball were really good,” he said. “I wasn’t really locating my fastball like I’d like to but I guess today they had enough zip on them to get by them.”
Rock said he’s expecting to see the Cardinals in the win column more regularly now that they have their first win under their belt.
“I think we have a good team here and I think it was just a matter of getting that first win. I think we’ll be able to get a few more now that we got the first one out of the way.”
Both Rock and Biancalana said having the students watching the game provided a great atmosphere.
“Bill Sobkow had the idea, and it really got rolling last year,” said Biancalana. “It’s nice to have the kids out and the players really enjoy it, and any time you get more people out here it’s fantastic.”
Rock said the kids really livened the park up.
“In some games, there’s not too many guys out here, and the kids make it a lot of fun and they’re loud and they’re cheering at everything and it’s just awesome to pitch in front of all of them,” said Rock.
Other games
The following day the Cardinals faced the Millionaires again, and it was another win for the Cards, 13-9.
On Sunday, the Cardinals headed to Moose Jaw to face the Express, and fell 14-6.
Monday night was another highway 10 battle as the Cardinals played the Millionaires again at Pirie Field in Melville.
This time, the Millionaires took the W 10-4.
Yorkton player Parker Smejkal homered for the third consecutive game. In those games the third baseman has also picked up six hits and four RBI.
Local product Tyson Black made his second start of the season. He gave up eight runs on six hits. He also struck out five Melville batters in the loss.
This loss forced Yorkton’s record to drop to 2-7.
The next action for the Cardinals is on Wednesday, June 14 at Jubilee Park in Yorkton as they host the Swift Current 57s. The game will start at 7:05 p.m.
