The R. Miller Midget Cardinals have pulled out of their upcoming Prairie Midget Baseball league semi-final matchup with the Saskatoon Giants.
The withdrawal from the playoffs marks the end of the season for Yorkton's AAA Midget squad, who simply could not field enough players to continue the PMBL's postseason.
"There's an assortment of real legitimate reasons why we ended up short of players. Work was the main factor," Cardinals Manager Dallas Swan points out.
The end of the PMBL playoffs also marks the conclusion of what has been a busy month for the Cardinals.
The R.Miller Midgets started August off with the 2010 Midget AAA Provincials in Saskatoon.
Due to some organizing complications by the tournaments hosts, the confusing nine-team draw saw the Cardinals face the Saskatoon Cubs in the equivalent of a quarter-final elimination game.
The Cubs managed to score a run in their last at bat and took the game 4-3 over the Cardinals to move on. The tournament was eventually won by the Saskatoon Giants.
While there was some disappointment amongst the Cardinals ranks, Swan says that sometimes a loss is just a loss.
"The whole league was quite evenly matched from top to bottom, anybody could win it. It was sort of a disappointment but not totally unexpected either. They played one run better than us," he points out.
After an early exit in Provincials, the R. Miller Cardinals turned their attention to the PMBL playoffs.
The opening quarterfinal playoff series saw the Cardinals take on the Regina Mets.
Yorkton grabbed the opening game of the best-of-three series, last Tuesday, by the score of 11-0.
The teams then headed to Regina for the final two games of the series set for last Thursday.
The Mets managed to even things up with a 4-2 victory, though their euphoria was short-lived. Yorkton took the second-half of the doubleheader 15-0 to claim the series victory.
The Regina side was also suffering from a lack of players during the course of the series, with some of their guys playing on the Canada Cup team.
With the Provincial champion Saskatoon Giants awaiting Yorkton in the next round, circumstances did not allow the Cardinals to continue.
With the Cards players facing the prospect of missing work and having to honour other commitments, the decision was made to forfeit the series against the Giants.
The tumultuous scheduling thanks to the rainy season did not do the Cardinals any favours either. With players having to miss shifts at work to make up games earlier in the year, some were reluctant to continue to play late into August.
Swan indicates that while it's disappointing to miss out on the rest of the PMBL playoffs, the Provincials are usually looked at as a higher priority. Fortunately, the Cardinals were able to send a full squad to Saskatoon earlier in the month.
"In a way it's sort of sad you play in this all year and the playoffs come down to not even the (full) team's anymore," Swan mentions, "But also... the (PMBL) season ... is really like an exhibition season all year long to get ready for the Provincials... The Provincials are always the biggest part of any season."
Despite the unfortunate ending, Swan is quick to point out that the season was a solid one for his team.
"I would say (it was) a fairly successful season. We played .500 ball."
