After a promising 2-1 start to their 2014 season the Yorkton Cardinals regressed into a losing streak shortly afterwards to fall to 2-5, taking the momentum that a much improved Cards roster had along with a winning record early in the season.
The skid also put the pressure on the team to turn things around quickly, not wanting to repeat past mistakes in faltering too much to bounce back and recover in the quick two month WMBL regular season that shows little forgiveness towards ballclubs that slump for too long at any given juncture of the year.
With a busy week facing East Division rivals in Melville and Regina along with two games with Edmonton and a Tuesday night affair with the Moose Jaw Miller Express the Cards took full advantage of the chance to bounce back, winning four out of five games to climb back to a .500 record with their sole loss coming on Sunday at the hands of the Edmonton Prospects in a 2-1 defeat.
Yorkton's week started in Melville where the Cardinals evened up their season series with their Highway 10 rivals in a 12 inning affair that saw Yorkton put up six runs in the top of the 12th to sink Melville and get back in the win column. Georgie Santiago had three RBI's in the win while Codi Scanlon was given the win in relief after pitching three innings of work in the long affair at Pirie Field.
The road win in Melville would come at a perfect time as the Cardinals would return home for a homestand that started off on the right foot against the Edmonton Prospects in inter-divisional play as two WMBL clubs that missed the playoffs in 2013 did battle at Jubilee Park for the first of two weekend games in Yorkton between them.
Yorkton would get the bats swinging right away and would never look back, scoring runs in each of the first three innings on their way to an easy 9-2 win. Ben Grillo, Kameron Mizzell, Stetson McCollin and Zach Mihic all had multiple RBI's in the win, giving starter Eliot King plenty of run support as he went five innings in the win giving up just one run and striking out three Prospects pitchers.
Wet weather would put a damper on the Cardinals scheduled games with the Weyburn Beavers as rain would prevent the two East teams from playing their game on either Friday or Saturday with storms forcing the postponement of Yorkton's only road game of the weekend, allowing them to focus on their Sunday rematch with the Edmonton Prospects on Sunday where they would look to sweep the weekend series with their Alberta foes.
In a low scoring affair with Cardinals ace workhorse Jeff Pool on the mound an RBI in the top of the fourth for Edmonton from Derek Shedden would be the difference as a two run inning from the Prospects would be the difference in a 2-1 final score in the Cardinals worst offensive showing in a full nine inning outing this season, putting up their lowest run total to date in a full day at the park.
Yorkton would score just one run on five hits in the game, leaving seven on base and giving little run support to Pool on the mound in the loss.
Those cold bats would warm up in Regina on Monday as the Cardinals played their biggest game of the week against the division leading Red Sox with a chance to climb within two games of the 2011 and 2012 league champions inn evening affair at Currie Field.
Jamie Whitehead would get the start for the Cardinals and would give the team the best starting performance on the mound of 2014 to date, going eight shutout innings, allowing just six hits while mowing down the Red Sox lineup. Whitewould would walk just one batter all game in the commanding performance, striking out four and going nearly the distance before being shutdown by manager Bill Sobkow for the final inning of the game.
Equally as important to Whitehead's quality start on the mound was a bounce back performance from the Yorkton lineup as the bats were up to task after their slow game against the Prospects on Sunday. The Cards would be once again led by their emerging WMBL star in Santiago, who would register five RBI's in the win as part of a 12-0 slaughter of the Red Sox in which Yorkton would score 12 runs on 17 hits.
Drummonds and Grillo would also continue their hot streaks at the plate in the blowout, both hitters getting three RBI's each in the win that pushed Yorkton into second in the East Division with a chance to climb back to .500 in a home game with the Central Division's Moose Jaw Miller Express on Tuesday night with Clay Rideout on the mound for the Cardinals getting a start after solid work in relief on the weekend for manager Bill Sobkow.
With Rideout and Miller Express starter Tiodd Leavitt on the mound fans at Jubilee Park were treated to a pitcher's duel with little offense for the first three innings of shutout baseball before Moose Jaw broke the ice in the top of the fourth, putting up a single run to take the first lead of the ballgame in the middle innings of what was a tightly contested affair on Tuesday.
In the bottom of the sixth Cameron Duncan would step up, getting a hit as well as a stolen base to cash himself in and tie up the ballgame for the Cardinals off of an RBI for Stetson McColin to square things at 1-1, saving Rideout from being assessed with a potential loss despite an outstanding effort on the mound.
Their lead would be shortlived however as the Miller Express would get back in front in the next half inning as the top of the seventh featured a Miles Hunter RBI that would put the Express back in the lead with a 2-1 margin that looked like it could potentially be enough run support after seven innings produced just three runs between the two teams.
That would change in the bottom of the eighth as the Cardinals answered back once down to their final six outs, rallying thanks to more heroics from Cameron Duncan on the basepaths as the athletic product out of Alabama stole yet another base to tie the game thanks to some smartly employed small ball tactics from Yorkton before Georgie Santiago knocked in the goahead run to put the Cardinals up 3-2 with plenty of runners on base for Austin Drummonds to work with after Kameron Mizzell drew a walk to put runners on first and second with one out.
With two runners on and a chance to add some insurance for the closer in the top of the ninth, Drummonds launched a hard hit to the wall, scoring both runners with an RBI double before scoring himself thanks to a throwing error after being caught in a rundown to extend Yorkton's lead to 6-2 going into Moose Jaw's final inning at the plate.
Cole Roark would be handed the ball in the save opportunity, getting into some trouble thanks to a fielding error that cost Yorkton the first out of the inning before walking a batter and conceding an RBI double to allow the tying run to come to the plate with no outs and two runners in scoring position.
Still the Cardinals would leave Roark in the game to get out of the danger he put himself in and the Missouri native delivered, stirking out the first batter before fielding a comebacker right to the mound, freezing the runner at third before compiling the second out to relieve some of the pressure. With two out Roark easily retired the last Moose Jaw batter with a fly out to centerfield, giving Yorkton their fourth win in five and pushing the team to an early .500 record that coach John McVey said postgame was a huge a huge opportunity for the team to prove that they have the ability to step up and win in big game situations early on in the 2014 season.
"Anytime you look at the schedule and you are one game away from getting back to not having a losing record everyone in the clubhouse is going to be excited for that opportunity," says McVey. "With a short season we want to take advantage of whatever chances we can get to prove that we can be a winning ballclub and we showed that tonight with a big eighth inning to help out Rideout who had an absolute strong performance on the mound tonight."
McVey also gave praise to Cameron Duncan whose basestealing helped the Cardinals tie the game up on multiple occasions, sparking the rally that gave the Cardinals the win.
"Duncan is not only an outstanding athlete, but he is an equally good baseball player as well as an outstanding young adult to have on the team," mentions McVey.
"You need those types of players to help you win ballgames and he created two runs for us all by himself with good hitting and baserunning which is all you can ask for out of a player with the tools that he has."
The game's closing pitcher in Roark echoed McVey's excitement in being back at .500, saying that coming onto the mound for the ninth that he wanted to make sure that he completed the job to put the Cardinals back amongst the clubs in the WMBL with winning or .500 records.
"I wanted to make sure that we could keep our streak going and finish the win off after we had that big eighth inning so it was nice to get the opportunity to close the game and get us back up to .500," says Roark.
Next up for Yorkton will be important games against divisional opponents as they will take on East Division rivals this week in Regina and Weyburn, playing the Red Sox and Beavers twice apiece over the next seven days.
If the Cardinals can continue their winning ways they could overtake first place, trailing Regina by just one game.
For a team that hasn't made the playoffs in five years, things are looking up for a chance at Jubilee Park for one of the best Cardinals rosters in years.
