UNITY -- The Unity Cardinals are the 2024 Senior AA Tier 2 provincial champions, defeating the Lashburn Cardinals in the gold medal game, in Unity, Aug. 11.
Unity hosted the all west-central tournament with the four teams competing for the title very familiar to each other as members of the North Saskatchewan River Baseball League.
Games began Aug. 9. Lashburn defeated the North Battleford Beavers in a close 4-3 game, while Unity beat the Standard Hill Lakers of Maidstone 10-4.
The Beavers recently took Lashburn out of the NSRBL playoffs, winning a best-of-three semifinal, and Standard Hill did the same to Unity, so perhaps the opening games were a bit of revenge.
Round robin games continued Aug. 10, with Unity winning over North Battleford 11-6 but ending the day with a 13-1 loss to Lashburn. Lashburn also ended the day with a 2-1 win-loss record, having lost 13-11 to Standard Hill.
In the North Battleford/Standard Hill game, the Beavers won 18-7 so those two teams each ended with only one win and two losses, putting them out of provincial playoffs despite being the teams which have advanced to the NSRBL final.
With no tiebreakers necessary, it was a battle of the Cardinals in the provincial final Aug. 11. Unity had first bats and quickly worked to redeem their 13-1 loss of the night before by scoring four runs in the first. Some of those runs were assisted by fielding errors.
Rhett Feser was on the mound for Unity and the Unity Cardinals only allowed one run by Lashburn before picking up their bats once again. By the end of the second, Unity had padded its lead to 6-1.
Holding off the visitors and scoring one run in the fourth and three in the sixth – including a nice three-base hit by Tanner Huber which brought in two runs – made the score 10-1 in favour of the host Cardinals.
Lashburn had last bats and mounted a comeback in the bottom of the sixth, scoring five runs to make the score 10-6.
Despite the large crowd in attendance, there was not a sound to be heard as each pitch was thrown in the seventh. The Unity Cardinals weren’t able to add to their lead in the first half of the inning, but Lashburn, despite getting a couple of the visiting Cardinals on base, wasn’t able to add any runs either so Unity claimed the championship.
Garin Scherr, heavily relied on by Unity throughout the season, pitched the final inning.
The Unity team included three brothers – all three Fesers: Rhett, Thomas and Andrew. All three contributed throughout the weekend but Dad Dan was especially proud of the trio’s efforts, including several RBIs, in the Friday night win against Standard Hill.
With the Cardinals’ diamond slated for removal, player coach Cory Wildeman said, “Hosting this tournament couldn’t have gone any better for us. Winning and getting together for one last event at the Cardinal diamond (Hair Nook Stadium) was a storybook ending that will never be forgotten by all involved.”
Wildeman summed up the weekend by saying, “The weather couldn’t have been better. The endless amount of volunteer support we had was second to none. Everything came together perfectly and a great weekend was had by all.”
For those fans not quite ready to call an end to ball season, the NSRBL final games have been set. The first game is past with results not available for press deadlines, but the second game is Aug. 20 at 6:30 p.m. in Silver Lake Regional Park and, if needed, game three will be in North Battleford at 7:30 p.m., Aug. 22.
