Saturday Split: Cardinals' 6th Inning Offensive Explosion Leads to Game 1 Triumph Over Richmond; Chuckers Fight Back in Back-End of DH and Gut Out a 6-5 Rain Shortened Victory

On a day that was expected to be a torrential downpour, the first game of the double dip between the visiting West Coast Cardinals and the hometown Richmond Chuckers, game 1 was actually played through dry and cloudy weather. Finkelstein for Richmond squared off against Sugi for West Coast, both starters didn't have their best stuff but managed to keep their team in the ballgame. A bizarre decision by the Chuckers coaching staff to relieve Finkelstein with Kawai in the 5th inning with Sugi up to bat led to their demise, the game was lost at that point as the red birds routed the yellow birds by a score of 15-6. In game 2, the torrential downpour was on full display at Blundell as this game got called in the middle of the 6th inning after West Coast had to go through a brual top of the 6th. All aspects of the game were disappointing from West Coast in this one as the Chuckers gutted out a 1 run victory 6-5 in 5 innings.

CARDINALS 15 Richmond 6

Two former players and coaches in O'Krafka and Yam returned to the ol' stomping ground that was Richmond, their squad the West Coast Cardinals were looking to take two from a confident Chuckers squad that shutout Delta and were undefeated in league play. The Chuckers and Cardinals both had the 4-game weekend, but both decided to throw arguably their best in game 1 of a double dip. Finkelstein got the nod for the boys in the button-up blues, while Sugi got the start for the boys wearing the digital white dri-fits.

Turnbull would lead off the day hitting a bloop infield single that rolled off the glove of a sprawling McGill at SS for the first of his 4 hits today. A walk to 2-batter Sugi and a double steal later had the Cards dictating the start of the game, a soft RBI single by Yuen had West Coast up 1 and still pressing with runners on teh corners and still none out. Then the disappointment hit, a Baybay strikeout, a failed squeeze attempt, a Sugi slip on the basepaths and an ambitious effort by Yuen to take 3rd all in a span of 3 pitches had Finkelstein and Richmond from on the ropes to pumped up. Just like that the Cardinals went from being in the driver's seat with runners 2nd and 3rd none out, to leaving with a slim 1-0 lead after a half inning of play. 

The West Coast Cardinals would continue hitting Richmond with baby steps, scoring 1 run in the 2nd and 1 run in the 3rd off Finkelstein to go up 3 after 2 1/2 innings. Richmond would fight back and make Sugi pay for a walk to 9-batter Dolphin as the edgy and talented Jonny McGill would make Sugi pay for a fastball down the pipe taking it for a double to the left-field corner putting 2 runners in scoring position and jsut 1 out. 2 pass balls later had Richmond back in it, down only 1 after 3. Finkelstein would keep the Cardinal offence at bay in the 4th and burn the opposition with his bat in the bottom half as the second-year vet would take a Sugi offering and drive it to deep centre, the Cardinal centre-fielder misread the ball in the gloomy weather leading to Finkelstein standing on 3rd with 1 out. Hepburn wasted no time driving the tying run in with a prompt double himself. With Sugi showing signs of not being himself today, Yam opted to go with Yuen with Hepburn on 2nd, a sharp line drive off the barrel of Abraham snagged by Hendriks doubled off Hepburn at 2nd for the 3rd out of the inning, proving to be one of the turning points of the game.

With Finkelstein jogging back out to the mound for the 5th, Powell led off the inning with a 7 pitch walk, Yam decided that small ball was in order so he subbed lefty Miles to face lefty Finkelstein with sure intentions of sacrfice bunting, all plans were thrown out the window as Powell was picked off before "Fink" could deliver a pitch to Miles leading to the first out of the inning. The Cardinals didn't let that faze them as Miles and Turnbull both drew back-to-back walks. With Finkelstein sitting at just under 90 pitches and set to face a favourable lefty vs. lefty matchup, Hetherington (Chuckers' new head coach) opted to have Kawai face Sugi who promptly balked both runners into scoring position and instead of pitching around Sugi with the base open, Sugi scored both runs on one play, a SAC fly easily scored Miles while an overthrow in attempt to backdoor Turnbull scored the aforementioned Turnbull. The pitching change was the second of two turning points in this game. 5-3 Cards after 5.

An offensive explosion in the 6th put this game straight out of reach as Cardinal hitters pounded Kawai and Dolphin for 9 runs on 6 hits. Symons and New (New with his first apperance on the bump this year) finished the game off in relief both pitching an inning each as West Coast grabbed 15-6 victory from the hometown Chuckers, in a game that was actually closer than the score represented. 

Leadoff hitter for West Coast, Jordan Turnbull had a memorable game 1, going 4/4 getting on base 5/5 times with a BB, also picked up 2 RBIs and 3 SBs.

Richmond 6 CARDINALS 5 (5 innings)

With a twenty minute break in between games and the Chuckers’ parent group working hard to fix up the field that was disintegrating before their eyes the players on the Richmond side were focused on salvaging a split. With West Coast being the home team, Crozier threw the first pitch at 2:50pm off an already muddy mound. On a full count to leadoff hitter McGill, Crozier did what no Cardinal pitcher did in game 1, he kept McGill off base, a groundout to Baybay at second.  However, the Chucker offense took full advantage of a shaky Cardinal defence, a 2 out error by the West Coast third baseman (his second of the inning) scored two runs and gave Richmond a 2-0 lead after half an inning.

Leadoff hitter for West Coast, Jordan Turnbull had a memorable game 1 and continued his on-base hot streak by watching 4 straight pitches out of the strike zone delivered by Chuckers’ starting pitcher, Kyle Dodds-Eng. The first strike Dodds-Eng threw was smacked to deep left field by Sugi putting runners at second and third with none out. Unlike game 1, the Cardinals capitalized on the opportunity at hand, as Yuen would drive home a run with a RBI groundout followed by a hard hit double off the bat of Baybay scoring Sugi. A Fukuoka groundout scored Baybay with ease putting the Cardinals up 1 after 1.

The start of the third inning saw not only the weather come down but McGill kick-starting the Chucker offense once again. The star lefty hitter from Richmond, smacked a hard triple over the head of the Cardinal RF, he was promptly driven in by a Joey Houston double, knotting the game up at 3s. Another two out error by the Cardinal defense cost them a run, as Richmond was now up 1 after 2 ½ innings. West Coast loaded the bases in their bottom half of the 3^rd with none out, in a prime position to not only tie the game but take the lead, the offense hit a wall. A strikeout, fielder’s choice  and ground out later sandwiched a run via. A pass ball meaning the Cardinals scored only 1 run, as the score was tied yet again 4-4 after 3.

With the score still tied, the top of the 5^th saw Blundell become a mud bath as the clay in the infield, at the plate and on the mound almost needed rain boots to play in, the Chuckers and Cardinals continued to play it out. Yet again, McGill lead off the inning this time with a double (as McGill would fall just a homerun shy of the cycle in this contest), Hepburn and Lenihan each provided RBI singles to put the Chuckers up 2 going into the bottom 5. Sugi would provide the spark the Cardinals desperately needed as he smashed a ball to deep centre off Dodds-Eng for a leadoff triple, with Richmond still up a couple runs and with West Coast threatening, Hetherington would bring in the hard-throwing Houston to relieve Dodds-Eng, Houston would allow Yuen to drive home Sugi with an RBI groundout but sat down the next two Cardinal hitters with ease.  Chuckers 6 Cardinals 5 after 5.

The downpour and mess of a field continued well into the top of the 6^th with field conditions getting worse with each passing minute, the umpires made the West Coast Cardinals pitch and play defence through atrocious circumstances. The Cardinal hurlers were forced to pitch through muck and all that came out of the top half of the inning were walks, wild pitches, runs and sad faces. After what seemed to be as long as a 30 minute half inning, the Cardinals finally got 3 outs as the Chuckers 7 runs on 1 hit making the score 13-5. As Houston trotted back out to the mound that was essentially quicksand now, the umpires finally deemed the field unplayable in the middle of the 6^th! The game was called, which meant the top of 6^th was a complete waste of time and effort. Score reverts back to the last (5th) inning, 6-5 final for the Chuckers.

The West Coast coaching staff was not at all pleased with the effort put in by the players for the back-end of the double header, it was a pitiful effort to say the least. Kang and Suzuki are commended for their bravery and efforts pitching through a depressing top of the 6th in such harsh conditions. The Cardinals will look to get back on track and finish the weekend off on a high note as Nanaimo visits Nanaimo Park.