Facing a tight three way race in the East Division for the remaining playoff spots in the Western Major Baseball League with the Melville Millionaires and Weyburn Beavers, the Yorkton Cardinals faced a must win game on Monday night at Jubilee Park when three straight losses put them in danger of falling to last place in the division.
Yorkton's week started with a crucial home doubleheader against the Weyburn Beavers at Jubilee Park as they geared up for back to back doubleheaders with the Beavers, playing the first two games at home before having to travel to Weyburn on Friday night.
Hoping to distance themselves from the last placed Beavers with some big home wins, the Cardinals found no such luck during their midweek affairs with Weyburn and were swept at home during the two night games losing by identical 6-3 scores to drop two games.
Yorkton would lose the first game in extra innings, allowing three runs in the top of the tenth cost them the game and momentum heading into the second game in which the Cardinals relievers would cost them as arms went tired and the Beavers lineup capitalized by scoring crucial late runs in the eighth inning to win the second game as well.
On Friday night in Weyburn it would be the Cardinals returning the favour as Yorkton would bounce back from a four run Beavers first inning to score five runs in the top of the third before adding insurance on the way in a big bounce back victory by the way of a 8-4 final score.
10 hits would lift the Cardinals in the win as Austin Drummonds and Stetson McColin both scored two RBI's apiece in the win in the first half of the Friday night doubleheader in Weyburn.
Like the Beavers did midweek in Yorkton, the Cardinals would carry the momentum of a win during the first half of the doubleheader into the second game to success when the late game went underway.
All square in the top of the eighth inning, the Cardinals would get two runs over Beavers reliever Toby Eigner to win 5-3 and finish their four game series with the Beavers with both teams settling for a split of two victories apiece in a strange series where no home team won a single game out of the four battles between Yorkton and Weyburn.
The back to back victories against the Beavers would send Yorkton back home with some forward momentum as they were set to host the Swift Current Indians on Saturday and Sunday in a series with the first place team in the Central Division.
Jamie Whitehead would get the start on Saturday night for the first game of the series, but couldn't find much initial success as Swift Current scored three runs in the top of the first inning on the Cardinals starter to make things interesting in the early stages at Jubilee Park.
Things got even more interesting in the bottom of the first inning as Swift Current starter Marc-Andre Habeck gave the lead right back to Yorkton as the Cardinals generated three runs in the bottom of the first thanks to veterans Kameron Mizzell and Ben Grillo to erase the deficit and take the lead after what was a wild start to the game.
Both pitchers would settle down after the first inning, but once again the Cardinals pitching staff would fall apart in the late innings as Swift Current scored runs in their trips to the plate in the eighth and ninth innings on their way to a 9-4 win on Saturday to take the first game of the series.
On Sunday the Cardinals would be forced to start reliever Vin Whitenight as the amount of doubleheaders wore out their pitching staff, something that worked to varied success as after the strong reliever pitched two shutout innings it became clear that arm fatigue would become a factor when Swift Current finally got to Whitenight with three runs in the top of the third before eventually scoring five runs with the usual relief pitcher on the mound.
Easton Etter didn't fare much better, allowing four runs in the top of the seventh that sprung former Yorkton Minor Baseball pitcher and Cardinals utility infielder Derek Marshall to the mound to finish off the game as the bullpen options for Yorkton required to throw the former minor baseball pitcher into the fire in front of the hometown fans at Jubilee Park.
Marshall would pitch well for the first two innings of his mound performance, but eventually he would wear down in the top of the ninth where Swift Current ruined what was a nice moment by scoring five runs to extend their lead in what was a 14-8 final score.
Afterwards Cardinals coach John McVey said he was impressed with Marshall.
"It is hard to ask our position players to come into the bullpen because they aren't pitching every day and preparing to be thrown in last minute and I thought Marshall pitched really well and just couldn't get to the end of his inning which happens in baseball but overall he really impressed me by going out there and doing well for the majority of his outing," says McVey on the Cardinals local product's performance going from the infield to the mound.
After playing Swift Current on Sunday afternoon, the Cardinals would also have to play a night game against the Weyburn Beavers thanks to the scheduling quirks the rain during the first half of the WMBL season has caused.
Needing to get a quality start out of ace Jeff Pool to give the bullpen a rest, the Cardinals let Pool go nearly the distance before the top of the eighth gave him troubles in what was the deciding factor in a 4-3 loss after a fatigued Pool gave up a tied 1-1 score in the top of the inning as Weyburn scored three runs.
Yorkton would fight back with two runs of their own, but would again fall short for their third straight loss in a close game where once again worn down arms in the pitching staff from the compressed WMBL schedule was a deciding factor.
The loss would set up a "must win" game on Monday as the Cardinals would be facing their rival Millionaires looking to prevent falling into the East Division basement before a much deserved day off for their pitching staff, handing Clay Rideout the ball as the starting pitcher with Rideout in search of his second win of the WMBL season.
Getting a quality start from Rideout despite one run in the top of the first inning, it would be the Cardinals who would make a late push for a change as the bats woke up as the Melville pitching started to wear down on Monday.
The Cardinals would score a run apiece in the fifth and sixth innings before exploding for four runs in the bottom of the seventh to take a commanding 6-2 lead after the Mils tied things up in the top of the inning.
Reliever Cole Roark would close the door on the Millionaires chances, allowing just one more run in the ballgame to get Yorkton a win that they really needed to make up for their 2-5 spell leading up to the big East Division win. A stretch that included three losses to the Weyburn Beavers.
Yorkton now face a daunting task to make the WMBL Playoffs with just three home games out of their final 14 contests, making their Alberta road swing at the end of the season.
Looking to end a five year playoff drought in a three way race, Yorkton will have to find a way to go on a streak in Alberta on the road should they make the postseason. After a big win against Melville, the dream is still very well alive for the 2014 Cards.
The next two weeks will determine if it becomes reality.
