Ending the 2013 Western Major League Baseball on a four game win streak despite missing the playoffs for a fifth straight season, the Yorkton Cardinals had a strong start to their 2014 campaign on what was a tricky four game road trip leading up to this Friday's home opener at Jubilee Park.
With games against East Division rivals in the Melville Millionaires and Weyburn Beavers sandwiched between a weekend back to back with the Saskatoon Yellow Jackets, the Cardinals eventually went 2-2 for the week with both of their losses coming in one run affairs to show that things may be different in 2014 for Yorkton's boys of summer.
Opening Night 2014 for the Cardinals took place outside of the friendly confines of Jubilee Park and into the most hostile of territory as they travelled down the Highway 10 to take on the defending champion Melville Millionaires in their home opener following their most successful season that ended with a first ever WMBL Championship for Melville.
With 2013 innings pitched leader Jeff Pool on the mound for Yorkton as their starter things didn't start off as hoped for both the Cards as well as Pool as Melville took an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first thanks to RBI's from Logan Terwilliger and Blake Evetts.
Luckily for both Pool and the Cardinals their own bats would answer right back in the top half of the second as Stetson McColin would register the first RBI of 2014 and a wild pitch would score to level things up right away as the underdog visitors would get some momentum by way of stealing Melville's early lead as well as their confidence.
Pool would eventually settle down on the mound after a shaky first inning of his second year with the Cardinals, ultimately just allowing the two first inning runs in four innings of work. A solid first outing on the mound for Pool who set the franchise record in innings pitched by a Cardinals player during the 2013 season, getting a bit of a break after just four innings on Opening Night.
Thanks to Pool keeping Yorkton in the game by keeping the Mils from scoring early runs, the bats continued to be hot on the first day of the 2014 season as an excited group of new Cardinals made their impression felt by tagging the Mils for two runs in the third to take the lead as veteran Kameron Mizzell showed his leadership with a goahead RBI with a runner in scoring position after Austin Drummonds hit a lead off double. Already up 3-2, Nick Gotta would cash in Mizzell with an RBI double to give the Cardinals a 4-2 lead.
In the fifth the Cardinals would extend their lead as Stetson McColin would put Yorkton firmly in the drivers seat by hitting a single that would cash in two runs to give the Cards a 6-2 lead for their bullpen to work with as an Opening Night win was firmly in their grasps against the defending WMBL champions.
Melville expectedly answered back with two runs in the sixth and a run in the seventh before the Yorkton bullpen dug deep in the final two innings to get the 6-5 win as Cole Roark would be the hero in relief, getting credited with the Yorkton bullpen's first save of the season.
Cameron Duncan led the way for the Cards with a 3 for 5 night at the plate in the season opener.
Former Regina Red Sox additions in Austin Drummonds and second baseman Nick Gotta also had a couple of base hits for the Cardinals lineup that showed potency in their first showing of the season.
Yorkton would then head from Melville to Saskatoon to continue their road trip over the first week of the WMBL season as the Cardinals are set to play the bulk of their opening schedule on the road, playing a two game set with the Yellow Jackets.
In the first game the Cardinals would come back from an early deficit to tie the game at 4-4 in the top of the eighth before an error in the bottom of the inning allowed the Yellow Jackets to sneak away with a 5-4 win for their first loss of the season despite leading 3-2 at the seventh inning stretch.
Yorkton would have no problems in the rematch with the Yellow Jackets as the Cardinals bats were once again red hot in a game where the lineup registered an impressive 14 hits. Even more impressive was the Cardinals ability to cash in on those runs, scoring 13 runs on their 14 base hits, including six in the top of the ninth to pour it on the Yellow Jackets in a 13-5 drubbing to give the team their first comfortable win of the season and to move to 2-1 after the weekend.
That 2-1 record was good enough for second place heading into their East Division battle with the Weyburn Beavers on Tuesday as the Beavers came into the contest with a 2-0 record from the weekend and would be looking to go a perfect 3-0 while the Cards were hoping to continue their momentum and go 3-1 leading into their Friday home opener against Melville.
In a game where both starting pitchers were shelled early, bullpen pitching became the story as after explosive starts from both teams at the plate led to an early 6-6 tie the game went all the way into the 11th inning where the Beavers held on at home to stay 3-0 and push the Cardinals record back down to an early .500 mark.
All things considered the Cardinals first week of baseball was a success as their bats have shown early life as they have scored just over seven runs per game and defeated the defending WMBL champions on the road as positives.
That early strong start will be tested on Opening Day at Jubilee Park when Yorkton and Melville meet up again, if Yorkton want to prove they are for real in 2014 a win on Friday will prove a lot to the hometown fans in their 2014 debut in Yorkton.
