After a promising 2-1 start to the 2014 Western Major Baseball League season things were looking up for the Yorkton Cardinals going into the bulk of their early June schedule, a slate that included two home games against their division rivals and defending league champion Melville Millionaires.
Manager Bill Sobkow gave Jamie Whitehead the ball as the Cardinals Home Opener starter to face the Millionaires who came to Yorkton motivated by the chance of revenge after the Cards spoiled their Opening Night as league champs the week before.
That motivation led to a barrage of hits on Whitehead in the first inning as the Melville bats were red hot in the top of the first, more than ruining the atmosphere on Opening Night at Jubilee Park as eight runs were scored before the hosts even stepped to the plate.
Not to be deterred the Cardinals actually put up a good fight throughout the home opener despite the early collapse, shutting out the Mils for the rest of the game as Whitehead regained his composure before Codi Scanlon helped out in relief after Whitehead pitched six innings of shutout ball to get through seven innings in his 2014 home debut.
The turnaround on the mound allowed Yorkton to build a rally effort starting in the bottom of the third where the Cardinals would get half of the deficit back in a four run inning thanks to RBI's from a familiar face in veteran Georgie Santiago.
Yorkton would get two more runs in the sixth inning, but would enter the bottom of the ninth in need of at least two runs to keep their hopes of winning their home opener alive and send the fans at Jubilee Park home happy.
The Cardinals would mount a rally, cashing in a runner on a sacrifice fly from Santiago but couldn't get the second run after going down to their last out to lose in a 8-7 defeat that was a tale of one half inning spoiling an impressive debut from the 2014 Cardinals on their home diamond. A fact that had coach John McVey thinking positive, especially crediting the way the team and their starting pitcher calmed down after an unfortunate early meltdown.
"That is something we will have to learn as a team to work through in limiting the big innings but other than that first inning where things got a little out of control I felt the guys buckled down and played a solid baseball game tonight," says McVey who returned as coach after filling the role last season.
"Whitehead pitched a quality start after giving up all those runs and saved our bullpens arms as well as letting us work our way back into the game with some shutout baseball but we couldn't quite get there in the end despite a good effort," laments the coach on a tough loss.
Playing in a compressed June schedule the Cardinals would have to make the trip down the highway to Regina on Saturday in between weekend games with the Millionaires, sandwiching a Saturday night road affair in between their "homestand" making life more difficult.
The extra travel didn't appear to be a problem in the early innings Yorkton would answer back from an early 1-0 Red Sox lead by scoring three runs of their own in the top of the second to start off with some needed momentum as they attempted to snap a three game losing streak.
Yorkton's bats would give starter Jeff Pool one more run for a cushion in the top of the fourth, but Pool would exit the game in the sixth after allowing two runs in his final inning of work as costly errors allowed the Red Sox to rally back to a 4-3 score after six innings.
In the seventh reliever Max Chadsey would undo the Cardinals early work as the bullpen failed to finish the job on the road at Currie Field as the Red Sox scored three runs for the second straight inning to take a 6-4 win and continue Yorkton's losing streak in three consecutive close losses that were all down to the wire with the Cards falling just short.
On Sunday the Cardinals poor luck for the week continued as Mother Nature even gave Yorkton a bad bounce as the weather cooperated during their Sunday afternoon meeting with Melville at Jubilee Park just long enough for the Mils to score four runs in the top of the fourth before the game was ultimately called off after five innings in what was ruled as a 4-0 win for Melville in a rain shortened defeat for the fourth straight loss since their 2-1 opening weekend.
Yorkton will have a golden opportunity to turn things around this weekend as the Cardinals will play three home games over the course of Thursday-Sunday when they play the Edmonton Prospects twice with a game against the Weyburn Beavers separating the weekend series between Edmonton and Yorkton.
Sitting at 2-5 on the season it is clear that Yorkton will have intentions of making the most of their first true homestand this weekend, but will need to find a way to close the deal as the late innings haven't went their way as of late. If the Cards can put together nine inning performances this weekend a turnaround is likely.
