When you are on a roll, you are on a roll.
The Alexander Menswear Yorkton Junior Cardinals are definitely on one. Monday night, they were crowned champions when it comes to playoffs in the Â鶹ÊÓƵ East Senior Baseball League.
It was so nice the first time around, they decided they might as well do it again.
It was a little different though this time around, suggests Yorkton co-coach Gary Lamb.
"The first one's always sweeter. But it's a little bit better this time around because I have two sons on the team."
Dalane Lamb played on this year's Junior Cardinal roster and last year's, while brother Dan joined him on this year's squad.
It took three Lambs to do it but they teamed up to make rather quick work of the Willowbrook Royals.The two squads hooked up for a little south east style baseball finals action over the past seven days; the winner crowned league champions. Although the Royals kept things extremely close, at least at the two games played at Yorkton's Jubilee Park, this one was not going to require any extra games.Coach Lamb was pretty sure of that much.
"Yeah," he responded to the question of whether or not his Yorkton Junior Cardinals were capable of a repeat, however continued "I never thought we'd win it in three straight."
He said the reason for that was/is as follows: "(Starting pitcher) Logan (Calanchie) was exceptional again. Mike Cross did exceptional. Mark Jacobs made two great plays in the sixth inning. Everybody's committed."
The Junior Cardinals continued also to put up rather astonishing numbers throughout the season and coach Lamb said it's a testament to the way the senior season went for them.
Yorkton completed the season with a 31-8 record.
"We compiled a pretty good record," observed Lamb. "Everybody gets more committed." He couldn't say enough about starting pitcher Calanchie.
The first-year Junior got himself out of a bases-loaded logjam back in the third inning as Willowbrook failed to drive home what otherwise would have been the tying runs and the go-ahead runs."Logan's a horse," insists Lamb, "when he's got that fire in his eyes..."
Lamb then went on to credit team mastermind Brian Trollope for getting guys like Calanchie to sign on and stay in Yorkton.
"All the credit goes to Brian Trollope. I've got the easy job."
Lamb added that nobody is red and grey jerseys were worried about the possibility of losing this series, either.
"We were focussed on playing Willowbrook," Lamb quotes, even though "they (Yorkton) seem to like to let teams stay around."
Lamb said that although he expected his team to come through, he knew that Willowbrook was not going to go easy, losing to Yorkton by scores of 4-3, 4-2 and 5-2 in Monday night's final.
Willowbrook threatened late in Tuesday's opener and again in Monday's finale.
Jacobs picked off two runners on back-to-back plays in the sixth inning, displaying some kind of velocity into the glove of first baseman Cross to end any real threat caused by the visitors.
Lamb also said this team should be a threat for years to come.
"They never quit. That's good character. Their bench tonight was bigger then ours. Oh yeah, they could be a threat for years to come.
Yorkton just recently came off one of their biggest disappointments since their welcome back into junior baseball. When their bid for a provincial victory fell out of their reach, the Junior Cardinals had less than two full days to prepare for the SESBL finals with Willowbrook.
They went on to beat them three straight.
"For these guys, there's not really any mind change.
They've all been pumped up since last weekend."
Next up for the Alexander Menswear Yorkton Junior Cardinals is a trip far east to represent the province in the national championships.
Lamb said they will be flying straight to Montreal before heading to Trois Rivieres where they will open up the nationals facing Team Manitoba.
They are expected to be playing in front of some intense media coverage.
Last Tuesday evening, only two nights following a bizarre ending to their provincials, Yorkton got back at it with round two of their SESBL playoff action. They started Dane Kobylko on the mound and he came out with a nailbiter victory, a 4-3 opening win against the Royals.
Kobylko went the distance throwing seven complete innings, including three strikeouts, three walks allowing one earned run, and having faced 29 Willowbrook batters.
He got a little run support in the early going, as the home side scored once in each of the first three innings. The Royals got one back in their half of the fourth, but Yorkton put it away with a fourth run in the sixth.
Willowbrook made things interesting with three men on base in the visitors' half of the seventh and drove one in to cut the Yorkton lead to 4-2.
Calanchie scored twice for the Cardinals while Ross Stilborn and Justin Stupak also tallied.
The win gave Yorkton a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series and game two went Thursday night.
The two teams met again in Willowbrook for game two. This time, the Yorkton pitching duties were split between Dan Lamb and Travis Nesbitt, with the latter starting. He threw five innings, faced 22 batters, gave up a pair of runs, walked four and struck out one. Lamb came out in relief, went two innings, facing 11 batters, gave up a pair of earned runs and walked four.
They got plenty of run support, as Yorkton scored three runs in the opening inning. Willowbrook got two back in their half of the third but Yorkton also got one in the fourth to lead it 4-2 heading to the fourth inning. The home side inched to within one in the sixth but that was as close as they would get.
Calanchie, Dalane Lamb, Dane Kobylko, Matt Poier provided the scoring for the Cardinals in game two.
