It was quite the week for the Yorkton R. Miller's Midget 'AA' Cardinals.
First the Cards fell victim to the Melville Millionaires 5-3 on Wednesday, before rebounding with a series sweep on Sunday against the visiting Weyburn Beavers, edging out the Beavers 4-2 in Game One before lambasting them 14-4 in Game Two.
The 2-1 record this past week gives the R. Miller's Cardinals a 5-4-1 record through 10 regular season games and sole possession of fourth place in the 15 team Regina Midget 'AA' Baseball League.
In Melville
The Cardinals came into the game against their Highway 10 rivals having played them twice so far this season, tying the first game 6-6 in Melville after being down 6-0 and winning the second game 11-3 in Yorkton.
So it made sense that it was the Mils' turn to taste victory, as the home team edged out Yorkton 5-3 despite a solid performance at the plate from Tyson Black (2-for-4, double, one RBI).
Third year star Mason Kelley was tagged with the loss. Kelley tossed four innings, giving up five runs (three earned) on four hits and four walks while striking out four.
Jordan Bieber also pitched in the 5-3 road defeat. Bieber was once again impressive, this time out of the bullpen, throwing two scoreless innings while only allowing two base runners, one each via a walk and a hit by pitch.
But while the pitching was strong in allowing just four hits, the offence was not; something head coach Tony Black was very well aware of when looking back on the game. "Our sticks just weren't there," offered Black. "Our offence didn't come to hit that day as a team. We had a couple of guys who hit well, but as a team we couldn't string together many hits at all."
The R. Miller's Cardinals are now 1-1-1 against Melville on the season.
Edging the Beavers
The Yorkton R. Miller's Midget 'AA' Cardinals came into their Sunday doubleheader against the Weyburn Beavers desperately needing at least one victory in the hopes of ending their three game skid in the Regina Midget 'AA' Baseball League.
Not only did they get one win, they landed two, doubling up Weyburn 4-2 in Game One before hammering the hapless Beavers 14-4 in a mercy-rule shortened Game Two.
Tyson Black was the story in Game One. The talented New Brunswick product torched the Weyburn lineup in a dominant complete game effort, pitching all seven innings and striking out 14 Beavers batters while allowing just four base runners on three hits and a walk for his second win of the season.
And not only did Black silence the Beaver bats, he also jump started the Cardinals offence with a leadoff double down the left field line in the fifth inning that led to him scoring on a Peyton Perepeluk single for the eventual game winning run.
Perepeluk, meanwhile, had a strong game at the plate going 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI while Caleb Bymak (2-for-3, walk) also had a two hit, one RBI performance.
Mason Kelley also had a solid game at the dish going 3-for-3 with a walk and one RBI while Jake Holinaty picked up the other Cardinal RBI in the 4-2 win.
But while the likes of Perepeluk, Bymak and Kelley all had strong games, assistant coach Stefan Bymak singled out one player in particular who allowed the Cardinals to win Game One and put a halt to their three game skid. "Tyson Black was great for us in Game One," offered coach Bymak. "Offensively he had a real nice shot down the left field line there that kind of got things going a bit and then scored the eventual winning run and he gave us a chance to win with his pitching.
"He was really the difference in Game One."
Walloping Weyburn
The Yorkton Midget 'AA' Cardinals were right back at it on Sunday afternoon for Game Two of their doubleheader against Weyburn, just a half hour after they ended a three game slide with a 4-2 win.
And if some in attendance felt that the first victory was mainly due to the performance of Tyson Black, the overall performance of the entire Cardinals roster in Game Two was enough to silence any critics.
That's because the Cardinals kicked their offence into high gear, trouncing the visiting Beavers 14-4.
However the 14-4 win didn't initially come easy. Weyburn had leads of 2-0, 2-1 and 3-2, the last coming off of a steal of home plate by Weyburn's DJ Englot, before the Cardinals offence finally got on track.
Caleb Bymak went 4-for-4 with two runs scored in the win while Jordan Bieber was 2-for-2 with two walks and three RBI including a bases loaded two RBI single in the bottom of the first to start the Cardinal offensive onslaught.
Bieber also drove in the eventual game winning run with a double in the fourth inning that scored Mason Kelley from third.
In addition to his offensive performance, Bieber improved his pitching record to 3-0 on the season with a sparkling performance on the mound. The talented right hander gave up four runs, two earned, on seven hits and one walk while fanning 11 over five solid innings before turning the ball over to bantam call-up Kaito Farquharson, who had a three up, three down sixth inning that included a strikeout in is Midget 'AA' debut.
When asked about what he thought the turning point in the game was for his club, assistant coach Stefan Bymak was quick to suggest that it was, in fact, Englot's steal of home and the Cardinals response to that play. "It's a fair play by them and an aggressive play as well but we rallied on the bench after that I think," suggested coach Bymak, continuing, "Jordan (Bieber) kept his cool on the mound after that play when many guys would get frustrated and he kept us in the game early on before our offence finally came to life."
As for that offence, Bymak feels that the recent struggles, which now seem to be a thing of the past, wasn't due to a lack of effort by his players. Instead, Bymak felt it was simply due to a case of bad luck early on. "We struggled the last couple of games prior to this one with finding holes but that's baseball. You hit it and guys on the other teams make the plays because it's not like we weren't putting the ball in play," suggested the assistant coach. "All year we have been constantly putting wood on the ball."
"Now the ball is starting to fall for us."
