The Unity Cardinals are the 2013 Saskatchewan Men's Senior A2 Provincial Champions after a weekend of close games and extra innings.
Unity hosted the provincial tournament Aug. 9, 10 and 11, and was undefeated going into the final against the Bruno Bisons Sunday morning.
Bruno was the only team Unity had not yet played and a win would have clinched the Cardinals the championship then and there, but it was not to be so quick and easy. The Bisons defeated the Cardinals 10-9, setting up a Sunday afternoon re-match.
Less than an hour later, the teams were back on the field for the deciding game.
Whereas the first game had seen a number of base hits from both teams, as well as home runs by Cardinals Cory Wildeman and Justin D'Entremont, the second game was much tighter defensively.
Wildeman started off the batting order for the Cards and hit a single, then stole his way to second base. D'Entremont, up next, hit to centre field where Bison Curtis Sibley caught the ball, getting the out. Wildeman was able to tag up and speed around to home plate, scoring the first run, giving D'Entremont the RBI and the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
The Bruno team went three up, three down in the bottom of the inning, and Unity did not do much better in the top of the second, sending only four batters to the plate and stranding Tyler McKee on first base.
At the end of the fifth inning, the score was still 1-0 for Unity.
D'Entremont was the first batter to the plate in the top of the sixth, hitting a double, and scoring on another double, hit by Ryan Greenwald. Greenwald, known for his speed, raced home on a single by Regan L'Heureux.
The Cardinals were now ahead 3-0, but the Bisons had last bat advantage and there was still an inning and a half to go.
With two out, Bruno's Josh Kerpan hit a double and was brought home on a single by Kyle Sibley. With the potential tying run at the plate, pitcher Taylor Heck kept his cool and struck out Curtis Sibley to finish the inning with the Cardinals still in the lead, now 3-1.
Bruno catcher Cody Thiel came out from behind the plate to pitch the seventh inning and quickly shut down any attempt by the Cardinals to pad their lead, as the Unity team went down in order.
Now it was a matchup between the Cardinals' pitching and the Bisons' hitting. Taylor Heck had pitched the entire game, as well as the final inning of the earlier game. When Thiel got on base through an error and a single was hit by Jason McCrea, Cardinals' player-coach L'Heureux and third base coach Graeme Gieni called a time out.
Heck walked off the field to appreciative applause from the hometown crowd as Ben Gieni warmed up on the pitcher's mound. Heck was later named game MVP.
Thiel scored for Bruno, closing the gap to one run. The Bisons were able to load the bases before Cameron Weiman hit to left field where Wildeman caught it in the air, getting the third out and ending the game for a Cardinal 3-2 victory.
In earlier games, Unity beat the Rosetown Angels 4-3 and, in a game that required three extra innings, the Carnduff Astros 13-11. L'Heureux and Wildeman were the game MVPs respectively. Undefeated, Unity had moved directly to the Sunday finals.
Bruno lost their initial game of the tournament against the Carnduff Astros 4-3, in a game that took two extra innings. They then beat Rosetown 15-3 to advance to a must-win game against Carnduff, who had the smallest roster at the tournament and just coming off their 10-inning game against Unity, lost to Bruno, 13-3.
