It wasn't a stellar evening for the home team as the Parkland Padres went down 18-3 to the Alexander's Junior Cardinals in their season home opener at Jubilee Park.
The Junior Cardinals got rolling in the top of the third inning when Justin Stupak drove in Logan Calanchie and Scott Sharpe with an RBI single.
Ross Stilborn followed up with an RBI single bringing home Stupak.
Craig Kinvig drove in the fourth run as he brought home Travis Nesbitt with an RBI single.
A wild pitch scored Matt Poier to put the Junior Cardinals up five runs.
In his second trip to the plate in the third inning, Stupak pounded out a double, driving home three runs, as Braeden Ferch, Calanchie and Sharpe came home to make it 9-0 after the top of the third.
Cardinals' starter Calanchie threw for three innings and recorded nine strikeouts before giving up the mound to Kent Larson.
At the top of the fourth with the Padres pitcher struggling, Ferch walked with loaded bases to bring in Poier. A walk to Sharpe brought home Kinvig.
The Padres managed to get wood on the ball in the bottom of the fifth inning as Reese Mansuy drove in Monte Taphorn to score their first run in the game.
The Padres woes continued into the top of the sixth innings as an error scored Junior Cardinals' Kinvig. Sharpe came to the plate and drove in Mark Jacobs, then Ferch and Larsen came home on wild pitches. Still-born's sacrifice fly brought in Sharpe and Nesbitt's RBI single drove in Stupak. An unforced error by the Padres right fielder allowed Nesbitt to score.
The Padres fared better in the home half of the sixth as Mark Brevard nailed a triple to drive in Cam for the Padres second run. Erv Switzer hit a double to drive in Aaron Elmy for the Padres third run and advanced to third on an error by Cardinals third baseman.
After six innings the Alexander's Junior Cardinals claimed an 18-3 win over the Parkland Padres.
Junior Cardinals head coach Brian Trollope says he knew the Padres were low on pitching before the game started. He suggests the game was a little unfair as the Padres had pitching woes and it was their first game while the Cardinals were starting to come around after playing three games.
"When you get into a blowout game, maybe you get a little complacent. Some of your good habits break down. It would be nice if you could keep your good habits all the time but in blowout games that's the way it goes," Trollope explains giving up three runs late in the game.
The Cardinals will face their toughest weekend June 3 as they play the Yorkton Yankees Friday evening, host Southey in a double header Saturday, June 4, and play another double header against the Raymore Rockets Sun-day, June 5.
Despite the heavy weekend, Trollope says it's good preparation for provincials where the team could play as many as six games in a weekend. "I think we're deep enough in pitching that I think we can handle it, but it will be a test for us," he states.
Parkland Padres head coach Ewan Morrison says, "Our four regular pitchers weren't here so the boys did the best they could. We'll give those boys a better game next time."
"It was a nice night for a ball game. It's too bad we didn't have one," Morrison quips.
