Just two weeks ago things seemed to finally be going the Yorkton Cardinals way in the month of July for the first year in a long time. The Cards were in the drivers seat for the East Division's final WMBL playoff spot and the Weyburn Beavers were struggling. It looked like if the Cardinals could hold off the Beavers as long as they could take the season series with Weyburn and end Bill Sobkow's streak of missing the playoffs as manager.
All of that went south following a 5-2 loss to Weyburn on July 16. The loss gave new life to the Beavers and started what has been a free fall caused by a grueling road trip that went through two of the WMBL's strongest teams for four games. Yorkton fell 13-5 to Melville after the Weyburn loss, allowing seven runs to the Millionaires in the bottom of the fourth inning to start off what was a road trip of horrors for the Red.
In their two games against Swift Current the Cardinals would get hung for three runs in the first inning before getting shut out entirely in the second game to be handed a sweep in the two game series. In the second game Chris Haddelland had no problem retiring the Cardinals bats as they were whisper silent in Swift Current. The 6 3' righthander from Oregon threw nine strikeouts and walked just one batter in a gem of a complete game shutout that continued Yorkton's misery.
Things were not better in Medicine Hat when the Cardinals were dominated once again by a higher class of opponent in their road swing. The league best Mavericks beat the Cardinals 6-3 in the first game of their weekend series 6-3 after the Cardinals started the game up 3-0 before the wheels fell off for starter Shaniel Rivera in the third inning as he allowed three runs to give Medicine Hat the tie before the Mavericks slowly took over the game to continue Yorkton's losing streak. The second game of the weekend would be less kind to Yorkton and far less close on the scoreboard as the Mavericks pelted the Cardinals for a 12-1 win, keeping spirits low after losing 3-0 to Swift Current on Sunday heading into a must win game in Weyburn against the Beavers with their season on the line after a dismal week.
Yorkton was not up to task on Monday as for the third straight game between the two teams Weyburn started things off by taking the lead in their first trip up to bat, scoring two runs off of Aaron Martinez, who was entrusted with the start by Bill Sobkow with Yorkton needing a win to breathe life into their race with the Beavers for the final playoff spot in the East Division.
Down 5-1 in the ninth inning Yorkton would pull out the magic for a short moment after a Dylan Gross triple started off a potential Cardinals rally by sending in Ben Grillo to make the score 5-2 with a runner on third and no outs. It was not to be sadly as despite a Sergio Perez sacrifice putout to whittle the score down to two runs, Yorkton lost another must win game to the Beavers, one that all but mathematically eliminated them from the playoffs barring an epic collapse from Weyburn in the WMBL season's final week.
In order to stay alive Yorkton would need to beat the defending champion Red Sox in Regina on Tuesday night. In a rain shortened game that was called after 4.5 innings, Regina would win 2-0 off of RBI's from Chase Benfield and Tyler Wheeler as the Cardinals chances of the postseason would come to end on a rain shortened 2-0 defeat, a bitter pill to swallow for a team that was very much in the thick of things just two weeks ago.
David Toth would be handed the loss in Tuesday's game, allowing just three hits over 4.1 innings as the game was called at Currie Field, still it was almost inevitable that the Cardinals would be eliminated as the Weyburn Beavers have been red hot at the same time the Cardinals have been ice cold, with Yorkton's season going from an improvement from 2012 for much of the season to the status quo as Yorkton will once again be missing out on postseason excitement.
At 12-30 Yorkton will finish second worst in the WMBL ahead of the Edmonton Prospects and below the Saskatoon Yellow Jackets in what has been another disappointing season for Yorkton's baseball fans. The Cardinals have not been treated to a winner for the better part of a half decade as Bill Sobkow has failed to guide the Cards to the playoffs as a manager for five consecutive seasons now.
Yorkton will finish their season out by hosting the Yellow Jackets on July 25 before home finales against Regina and Melville July 28/29.
Yorkton will now be playing for pride, officially eliminated from the playoffs and riding a eight game losing streak the Cardinals season is ending in a nightmare, they have four more chances to put a happier spin on the end of their season.
