Cardinal Baseball Showing Some Early Rust

The Cardinals hit the diamond for three games last week.  There were some brief moments of promise but for the most part the Cardinals struggled to get things going both at bat and in the field.  This is not too surprising since the vast majority of the teams they are facing in the early season have been able to get outside and experience some real game-like situations.  Meanwhile the Cardinals have spent most of their time practicing in the high school gym.  I suspect the Cardinals’ play will pick up as the season goes on and they are able to get outside and on the field.

Soda Springs began last week traveling to Firth for a double header.  It took the Cardinals some time to get off of the bus in this match-up.  The Cardinals had the first at bat and only managed to get one on base before having to hit the outfield.  Defensively Soda Springs did well in the first inning forcing Firth to go three up three down.  In the second inning the Cards were able to get a couple of runners on base but could not manage to get any of them across home plate.  In the bottom of the inning the Cougars were able to put up the first runs of the game and took a two to zip lead heading into the third.  In the third the Cardinals were unable to get a hit while Firth got several players on base.  Through some errors by Soda Springs and some good base stealing the Cougars extended their lead to seven.  In the top of the fourth inning the Cardinals were able to load the bases but got just one run off of a walk before suffering their third out.  In the bottom of the inning the Cardinals continued to make errors and gave up six more runs.  One last gasp in the fifth saw the Cards only get one more base runner and he failed to score.  Soda Springs dropped the first game of the double header by a large margin.

In the second game of the double header the Cardinals got off to a little better start and were able to get one run in.  However their field play continued to lack and by the end of the inning Soda Springs trailed by two.  Over the next two innings Firth added one run per inning and extended the lead to four.  In the fourth inning Soda Springs did get the lead cut to one after scoring three runs but the bad luck continued in the field as Firth moved the lead up to five.  After no scoring in the fifth inning the Cards attempted a rally with three runs of their own.  The Cardinals also finished the Cougars inning with a nice double play giving Soda Springs some life going into the final inning.  Unfortunately Soda Springs failed to earn a run in the top of the seventh and game two of the double header ended with the Cardinals on the losing end.

Soda Springs wrapped up their week of play by traveling to Wendell to take on the Trojans.  The struggling Cardinals continued to have issues getting on base and playing clean in the outfield.  Through the first four innings the Cardinals failed to score a single run while giving up seven runs to the Trojans.  The Cardinals first run came in the fifth inning where their fielding also looked like it had improved.  However in the end the Cardinals were unable to do enough to significantly cut into the lead and lost this game by five runs.  

Throughout the week the Cardinals got on base more due to their opponents mistakes than good hitting.  In the field the Cards also gave up more runs and bases in steals and errors than they did off of good hitting.  It may have been a less than stellar week but keep the faith as the Cardinals get more time under their belts they will catch up to the other teams and make improvements. 

Cardinals 0 0 0 1 0 1

Cougars 0 2 5 6 - 13

Cardinals 1 0 0 3 0 3 0 7

Cougars 3 1 1 4 0 0 - 9

Cardinals 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 3

Cougars 3 1 2 1 0 1 - 8