The Yorkton R. Miller鈥檚 Cardinals were the victims of some bad luck this past weekend at the 2015 Bantam 鈥楢A鈥� Provincials held at Yorkton鈥檚 Jubilee Park.
The Cardinals finished the round-robin with a pair of wins, a 7-6 extra inning victory over the Swift Current Indians and a 5-2 win over the Prince Albert Royals, and one loss 8-5 to the Unity Cardinals, but finished in third place due to the tiebreaker as both Swift Current and Unity had both also finished with 2-1 records. 鈥淚f Unity would have lost their game to Swift Current 3-2 instead of 3-1 then we would have been in, so it came down to just a marginal play,鈥� mentioned R. Miller Bantam Cardinal co-coach Larry Kitchen. 鈥淪wift Current had the best defensive record, then it came down to head-to-head and Unity had beaten us this morning and so they were awarded second place.
鈥淚t came so close that if we had won our extra inning game with none out instead of one out then we would have been in first place.鈥�
But while it鈥檚 disappointing for Kitchen to not see his team go through to the playoff round, he says the team certainly has nothing to be sad about. 鈥淭hey played hard and we have no regrets. We matched up to the best teams in the province and held our own,鈥� offered Kitchen, continuing, 鈥淗ands down we played competitive baseball and if somebody would say that we were just two house league teams put together nobody would believe that.鈥�
Kitchen also said that the tournament, eventually won by the Humboldt Dodgers 10-0 over Unity in the final game, went off without a hitch despite the Cardinals and Cardinal parents taking on the responsibility of hosting the competition only weeks prior to it being held. 鈥淲e only had three weeks to get it going otherwise it would have been cancelled,鈥� said Kitchen. 鈥淲e have a great venue here, we鈥檝e done it before so the experience helped and the tournament committee really did a lot of work and that was just 10 parents.
鈥淲e鈥檝e really got to be proud of what we鈥檝e done and the whole province is appreciative of what we did.鈥�
Other Provincial action
The Bantam Cardinals weren鈥檛 the only Cardinal team taking part in Provincial play this past weekend.
The Yorkton Peewee 鈥楢A鈥� Cardinals also saw some action, going 0-4 at the 2015 Peewee 鈥楢A鈥� Provincials in Weyburn, losing to the Lloydminster Twins 16-2 and Prince Albert Royals 22-8 on Friday before falling to the eventual champion Swift Current Indians 25-1 in their first game on Saturday and 23-7 to the White Butte Broncos in their final game of the tournament.
