After a stretch of offensive letdowns, the Yorkton Cardinals batters have woken up. Now there's no stopping them.
The Cardinals defeated the Weyburn Beavers 8-3 on Monday night in a battle for third-place in the East Division.
The win at Jubilee Park was the second straight for the Cards, who moved a half-game ahead of defeated Weyburn.
The Cardinals secured the win in large part due to a four run seventh-inning.
The four runs extended the lead to 7-2 for the home side and proved to be too much for Weyburn to come back from.
The Beavers did not help their cause as they committed two critical errors which allowed the four unearned runs to cross home plate.
Pitcher Max McDonald (2-1) was credited with the win for Yorkton.?McDonald pitched five and two-thirds innings and allowed only four hits while striking out three.
"It was going pretty good,"?McDonald says, reflecting on his successful outing.
As the players now start to settle in and get used to the league, McDonald indicates that his comfort level is high and that he's feeling confident.
"When I came here, I had a couple weeks off and kind of got out of the swing of things. But after being here for a while, (I) definitely feel like I?can go out there any day and no one is going to be able to hit me," he points out.
Accompanied by McDonald's strong pitching performance was the standout play of the Cardinals batters.
Second baseman David Kaplan was perfect at the plate, going four for four with two RBI's.
Lead-off man Tanner Waite wasn't far behind. Waite went three for five and also contributed an RBI.
As Manager Bill Sobkow explains, the revitalized Yorkton offence has to do with some subtle tweaks to their approach.
"I think the guys are a bit more aggressive," he points out. ?
Sobkow was also quick to attribute some of his team's improvement to the guest coaching of Bill Kissell, who has been lending his expertise to the club for the last little while.
"He's been doing a lot of extra work with these kids during the day time. The results are starting to show," Sobkow declares.
Still, the manager mentions that there is room for improvement in his hitting lineup.
"We have to also be very diligent and watch those last three guys in our lineup - the seven, eight and nine hitters. We're hoping that their going to start producing a little bit better because those three holes, whoever bats in that area, they have to do better."
As the season wears on and team's have to use their entire bench, Sobkow continues to feel confident about his team's depth - especially when it comes to pitching.
"I have no doubt that our pitchers now are going to start producing some excellent results. They are quality guys and I?believe they're going to rise to the top," he indicates.
McDonald agrees that the team's depth should start paying dividends. Winning the last two games in convincing fashion only lends more credibility to that argument.
"Winning two in a row is big for us.?Yesterday in?Regina definitely got us going with the bats and then today we kept doing the same thing. It feels like everything is starting to come together; pitching, hitting, fielding, hopefully we can keep it going," McDonald says. ?
The key to success and climbing higher than third-place in the East Division lies with the Cardinals ability to beat their divisional opponents.
After defeating two of them in the last two games, the importance is not lost on Sobkow.
"It's no secret, we have to win games against Weyburn, Melville and Regina," Sobkow states.
