The Alexander's Mens Wear Junior Cardinals made one last appearance in the South East Senior Baseball League action when they hosted the Willowbrook Royals.
The Juniors opened up a 3-0 lead but had a rough outing in the fourth inning where they gave up five runs and fell by a 10-4 count.
"They stopped us," suggested Gary Lamb, Cardinals co-coach. "A good team played (us that night)."
He added that Willowbrook needed to win that game in order to claim third seed in the league heading into the post season.
They scored four runs on only four hits and collected one error, while Willowbrook scored 10 on 11 hits and totalled six errors. Logan Calanchie had two hits in the loss and was the only Yorkton player able to hit more then one.
Matt Poier and Luke Boechler had one each. Calanchie and Boechler had two of the Yorkton runs scored. Dan Lamb and Justin Stupak had the other runs.
Poier and Mark Jacobs both saw time on the mound; Jacobs had two strikeouts.
RAYMORE
Two days' later, Yorkton hosted the Raymore Renegades in a doubleheader. Yorkton eked out a 6-5 victory in the first game, after having tacked a 3-1 lead after the first inning. However Raymore moved ahead thanks to a four-run effort in the third inning, and jumped ahead for a 6-5 win.
Coach Lamb admitted that he was "looking for win both ends" of the doubleheader, unfortunately Yorkton ended up going up against a pitcher whom Lamb said was definitely on top of his game.
"He kept us off the sheet," offered Lamb referring to a 3-0 loss handed them by Renegades pitcher Joey Bergen.
"He had everything working that game," observed Lamb.
Bergen's teammates scored what turned out to be the eventual game-winning run in the second inning as Bergen did the rest of the job, said Lamb. Raymore rounded out the scoring in the third inning with a pair of runs.
Bergen started and finished the five-inning game while Scott Sharp held Raymore to three runs. Sharp finished with 10 strikeouts.
REGINA
Yorkton also played a doubleheader with the Regina Athletics Sunday afternoon in the city. The first game resulted in an 11-0 win, while the second game appeared to be going Regina's way until Stupak stepped up the plate in the bottom of the seventh and smoked one to the outfield, tying, then winning the game, 8-6, said coach Lamb.
Yorkton trailed 6-4 going into their final three outs of the game, said Lamb. They cashed in four runs in the final three outs to tie it up then go up by two to seal an 8-6 win.
Pitcher Jayden Shwaga played the full seven innings for the Cardinals. He allowed six runs on seven hits. Five runs were earned and he struck out six.
In the opening game, Yorkton scored in each inning except the second. Because of the doubleheader, the teams only played five innings, but it proved to be five too many for the Athletics.
"We scored seven in the first (inning)," recalled coach Lamb.
Ninety-eight per cent of the Cardinals roster scored runs, with Shwaga, Boechler and Dalane Lamb leading the way with two apiece.
Calanchie, Sharp, Ben Walchuk, Jeremy Johnson and Ross Stilborn had one run each.
Stilborn pitched the game as well. He gave up one hit, walked two and struckout five.
PLAYOFFS
The opening round of playoff dates has been set for the Junior Cardinals. In a best-of-five series, four games could be played out this week, depending on outcomes, as the Cardinals will tangle with the Melville Bison. Monday night was scheduled for game one of the series. The series shifted to Melville for game two last night. On Wednesday the teams are given a break. The series resumes tomorrow (Thursday) here and if necessary, games four and five would be played in Melville on Friday and back here next Tuesday. Each game in the series is an 8 p.m., start time.
