The Alexander Mens Wear Junior Cardinals opened up their South East Senior Baseball League (SESBL) with quite the bang. Part of it was supplied by the first grand slam hit at Jubilee Park in years by a Yorkton player.
After slugging the first three pitches foul out of the park, Ross Stilborn got everything on the fourth pitch and sent in flying in the right direction.
"This is the first grand slam that I've seen," attested Gary Lamb, one of Stilborn's coaches. "Stilly started to see the ball well tonight."
The four-run shot came with the Junior Cardinals already up 7-1 and provided the team with a 14-1 victory over the Melville Bison.
Stilborn said afterwards he "was hoping" that he was going to make good connection with the ball after sending the first three pitches foul.
He even suggested he's been in a bit of a batting slump lately, so this one really felt good.
"My timing the last month has been horrible. It was right where I needed it to be," he said of the pitch that he sent flying over the wall in left field.
Coach Lamb said he knew Stilborn was onto the pitcher and added that it's a huge advantage to the batter.
The victory delivered Yorkton first blood in the SESBL playoff series. The Cardinals just came off a bye, while the Bison came off a 2-1 series win over the Yorkton Yankees. Lamb said he's hoping his team's hitting will continue to be able to deliver more wins in the playoffs.
"Hopefully the same thing," he said when asked about game two. Game two was scheduled for last night at Pirie Field in Melville, but results were not available in time for press.
"We're starting to flow right now."
He cautioned that Melville is not going to roll over and play dead, hinting that the Bison are much better then Monday night's score would suggest.
"They've got some good ball players over there. We're just going to have to hit the ball. They (Melville) played us pretty sharp in the first two innings (on Monday).
Should Melville tie the series in last night's match, the deciding game in the best-of-three series will go tomorrow night in Yorkton.
