Cardinals Learn Lessons From Tough Weekend

The Cardinal Baseball team traveled to Challis last weekend to play in a four team tournament.  In the tournament they would face Idaho City, Salmon, and Challis-Mackay.  The Cardinals would be missing several players during the tournament due to it being spring break and players being out of town. Coach Via commented, “We were missing some key guys and that showed both from a pitching and leadership standpoint.”  Coach Via also pointed out that the team has yet to be able to practice outside on a real field so these early season games are more akin to practices helping the players get used to what they need to do in games.  Despite those setbacks there were some positives during the weekend.  Will McCollough, Stoney Irick and Junior Horsley had some good moments on the mound.  Coach Via was also pleased with the improvements he is seeing in the hitting from the team. “We are putting the ball in play more consistently versus having so many strikeouts.”  Coach Via was impressed with how his players were able to step into some positions that they are not familiar with and handle the extra pressure.  

As for the games themselves the Cardinals would go winless in all four games.  In the first game the Cardinals would face Idaho City.  Early in the game the Cardinals would look good and hold a 2-1 lead at the end of the first inning.  With no runs scored in the second Soda would give up two runs in the bottom of the third and trail 3-2 going into the fourth inning.  In the top of the fourth the Cardinals would tie things up at three runs each.  In the bottom of the fourth the wheels would fall off for the Cardinals as multiple errors and a switch on the mound resulted in Idaho City putting up eight runs and take a commanding 11-3 lead over Soda.  The Cardinals would not be able to score in the fifth resulting in their first loss of the weekend.  

In game two Soda would face Salmon.  The story would be much the same as the first game.  The Cardinals would battle in a close game early.  After three innings the Cardinals were keeping things close and trailed by just one run 3-2.  However once again errors would haunt the Cards as they would give up seven runs in the top of the fourth and would now trail 10-2.  The Cardinals wouldn't be able to score again and the Savages would add one more run ending the game with a score of 11-2.

On day two of the tournament Soda would take on the co-op team of Challis-Mackay.  Once again the Cardinals would work hard to keep things close.  After one inning they would trail 1-0 and after two they would be down 3-2.  That would be as close as Soda would get in this one as well.  Challis would add three more runs over the next two innings building the lead to 6-2.  Stoney Irick was a workhorse from the mound in this one throwing over 85 pitches before finally getting relieved.  Junior Horsley would finish the game pitching.  The final result however was much the same as the day before.  The Cardinals would fall 9-3.

In the final game of the tournament Soda would once again face Idaho City.  The Cardinals appeared to finally breakthrough in this game as they would hold a solid 7-0 lead in the top of the third.  In the bottom of the third errors would once again pile up and the momentum would shift in a major way as Idaho City would score a whopping 14 runs in the bottom of the third.  That is all it would take as the final score would be 14-7.

Coach Via and the Cardinals will look to learn from their mistakes and build on the positive things that happened.  Trey Dunford was named the Cardinals MVP by the tournament coaches.  The Cardinals will be back in action on Wednesday as they travel to Firth before hopefully, weather permitting, hosting their home opener on Friday the 29th against North Fremont.