It was a good news, bad news start for the Yorkton Cardinals as they kicked off their 2013 WMBL season with four games in four days. The bad news: They lost their home opener to the defending champion Regina Red Sox as well as to the Moose Jaw Miller Express. The good news: They bounced back to beat their rivals in the Melville Millionaires, including one win in extra innings to stay .500 so far. Still, after last season where the Cardinals finished well under .500 and were quickly out of playoff contention, the 2-2 start is a step in the right direction.
Opening Night saw the Cardinals get a quality start from Steve Barnett, who went seven innings with just one run crossing home plate. Sadly that one run was all the Red Sox needed as Allan Sanchez fanned ten Cardinals batters in a dominating eight inning, ten strikeout start as the Cardinals bats could not get rolling in a 1-0 loss.
Still, the game could be seen as a positive as their Opening Night pitcher, embraced the moment, striking out five and giving his new teammates the chance to grab the win. The pitcher out of Emmanuel College was told by manager Bill Sobkow that he was going to get the start a few weeks before the start of the season and embraced the challenge. "I was told by the manager that I was going to start the first game a couple of weeks before I came down here and I prepared to give the boys a chance to win the first game in front of the fans and I felt that I did my job so it was a good experience," says Barnett.
On Sunday, the Cardinals bats awoke as RBI's from Kevin McLeod and Mike Meany contributed to a 4-0 lead as David Toth went five scoreless innings before being shut down for the evening.
His reliever Anthony Martinez had a rough night at Pirie Field against the Millionaires, allowing three runs in the fifth inning and giving the hosts a hope of staging a late rally. Canora's own Kody Rock came in as the setup man in the seventh and eighth and got two strikeouts as he shut the door on the Mils rally before Matt Bowles earned the first save of the season, giving the Cards a 4-3 win, their first of the season.
A 8-3 loss the following night back at Jubilee Park to the Moose Jaw Miller Express gave the Cardinals little time to enjoy their first win as they fell back to under .500 before Tuesday's rematch with the Millionaires,
The Cardinals jumped to an early lead in the second inning before going up 2-0 off another one run inning in the fifth inning in what was the second straight night the Cardinals opened up with the early lead after jumping out early in their loss to the Express the previous evening.
In the top of the sixth the Melville
Millionaires got one back before Yorkton answered right back in the bottom of the inning to keep their two run lead at 3-1. Melville got another run in the top of the seventh, but an insurance run from the Cardinals at the top of the eighth inning seemed like it would be the difference maker as pitcher Matt Bowles came to the mound for his second save opportunity of the season.
Yet the pesky Millionaires would not go down easy as a John Clark RBI was followed by a clutch triple from Garrett Kilgore to tie up the ballgame with a runner on third and just one out. Sobkow elected to stay with Bowles after the blown save and he did not disappoint his manager, striking out the next two batters to strikeout the side and give the Cardinals a chance to finish the game in the bottom of the ninth.
The game eventually went to extra innings, where Kody Rock once again showed some promising command in relief, striking out two and shutting down the Millionaires in the tenth and eleventh innings, and with an at bat coming up, it seemed like his night was over before another Sobkow gamble paid off as the manager elected to allow his relief pitcher to swing the bat with one out in the bottom of the eleventh, an unconventional move.
It paid off as Rock slapped a single down the first base line to spark a Cardinals rally. They shortly loaded the bases after Rock's clutch hit, before Ben Grillo became the hero with a walkoff single to give the Cardinals their second straight win over their division and Highway 10 rivals, a huge win as the East Division looks to be shaking up to be a tight race early as every team in the division has dropped games in the opening week of the 2013 season. In a short, one and a half month race to the playoffs, the Cardinals will need to win the close ones as they look to end their lengthy postseason drought.
A home game against the Weyburn Beavers Thursday will be the Cardinals only home action of the week as they head out on a four game road trip until June 13 when they will once again host the Millionaires.
The early road trip will be a huge test for the Cardinals, who will be looking to continue their steady start to the 2013 WMBL. After last season where the Cardinals fell apart early and didn't recover, it is looking so far, so good for this year's promising, and exciting group of ballplayers.
