Cardinals Come Away With an Unorthodox Saturday Sweep of Vancouver Community; AND IT'S OFFICIAL! West Coast Clinches 1st Place in the 2017 BC (Minor) Baseball Bantam AAA League

Posted June 24, 2017


Cardinals Come Away With an Unorthodox Saturday Sweep of Vancouver Community; AND IT'S OFFICIAL! West Coast Clinches 1st Place in the 2017 BC (Minor) Baseball Bantam AAA League

On a day where the hot, muggy weather seemed to be the clear winner, the West Coast Cardinals gutted out two games against a Vancouver Community team who had the unfortunate 4-game weekend. The defence for the Cardinals all day was spectacular, red stars in the scorebooks everywhere. Vancouver Community dropped their fourth league game in a row and eventually lost their sixth in a row (after Sunday's DH sweep at the hands of North Shore). As for the Cardinals, a Delta loss on Saturday meant that the Cards had officially clinched first place in this year's Bantam AAA season.

 

VanCommunity 0 CARDINALS 4

The Cardinals had their sights set on first place to begin Saturday but standing in their way were Smythe's scrappy Mounties. The Cardinals sent the youngest player on their roster to toe the rubber and arguably if not the best, one of the best all-around 13 year old ballplayers in the province. Hendriks, who is also the youngest player on this year's 15U BC Select team hasn't seen the mound as often as he would have liked, couple of minor injuries have held him back during the month of May, but the first-year stud from the Netherlands is back in fine form and undoubtedly showed off his complete all-around ability in today's DH. The Mounties sent Van Gorkum to the bump in game 1, the tall right-hander with an extensive windup and rocking the solid navy blue stirrups was looking to shut down a potent Cardinal lineup much like Hanning did for 4 innings on Thursday. 

Hendriks was put to the test right away as Smythe sent his second-year vet and lone 15U BC Select representative, Keegan Lott to leadoff for the Mounties. Hendriks lived dangerously early as he fell behind 2-0 to left-handed hitting Keegan Lott, but got #33 to lazily fly out to Turnbull in LF to begin the ballgame. A 10 pitch walk to a scrappy Garay had the pull-heavy Kahnert up with 1 out. Kahnert would attempt to execute an 0-1 hit and run, rolling over the 0-1 offering hitting it softly to Hendriks who fired over to Symons at 1 for the 2nd out. Trying to see if the Cardinal defence was awake and up to the test, Garay would go 1st to 3rd on the hit and run, but Symons alertly popped off his bag and threw a strike to Baybay at 3rd as Manny Alexiou (home plate umpire) would emphatically punch Garay out at 3rd to end the top of the 1st. Cardinals went down quietly in order in their offensive half of the 1st, 0-0 after 1.

Hendriks would work around a walk and keep the Mounties off the scoreboard in the top of the 2nd. West Coast would threaten in the bottom half, back-to-back walks to leadoff the inning had the Cards in business and ready to strike with none out. Crozier laid down a beautiful bunt between the pitcher, catcher and 3rd baseman as everyone was safe loading it up with none out. The Mounties would counter with a double play of their own, with Community's infield in Symons would groundout into a well executed 5-2-3 double play. New would groundout to Comparelli at 2B to end the 2nd. Teams who load the bases with none out have a run expectancy of > 2.3 and score at least one run about 88% of the time; all the Cards got from this inning was a sense of deja vu as stranding runners was something that happened far too often early in the game against Hanning a game ago. 

Hendriks would retire the Community side in order in the 3rd, Hendriks would wait for his centre-fielder before heading back to his dugout after the top half as he'd give some love to Sugi after robbing 9-batter Lehman of a hit with a sliding grab in shallow left-centre field for the 2nd out of that inning. The speedy Suzuki would work a 7 pitch walk to lead off the inning, putting Van Gorkum back in the set. Suzuki didn't need his burners to get to 2nd as the umpires would call a "mysterious" balk, through all the confusion and chaos the balk call was upheld and Suzuki was standing at 2nd with none out. Suzuki would easily swipe third without contest from Garay behind the plate as the Cards now had at least 3 chances to score #18 who was 80" away from plating the first run of the game. Sugi would do just that, as he would hit a chopper to 2nd for the 2nd out of the inning while picking up an RBI in the process. 1-0 Cards after 3. 

Hendriks would work around singles in the 4th and 5th stranding the lone baserunner in scoring position both innings, Hendriks continued to run the ball just off the big part of the barrel of the Mounties, yet the score remained 1-0 after 5. Leadoff hitter for Community, Lott would lead off the 6th and on a full count pitch Hendriks challenged Lott with a middle-out fastball just where Lott likes it and the ball jumped off his Baum Bat barrel to deep left field. Off the bat, Yam said "That's gone", but outfield was a good one today with Turnbull, Sugi and Suzuki manning it. Turnbull who is arguably one of the best outfielders in Bantam AAA, twisted one way then back the other while running backward doing his best to track the high fly ball with the sun beaming down on him, his final few steps transitioned himself from grass to warning track dirt, he looked up and watched as the ball would fall right into his glove just before the left-field fence at Bird for the 1st out of the inning...everyone breathe. Lott and Community couldn't believe their eyes, the ball not only stayed in the park by inches but was amazingly tracked down and caught for a huge first out of the 6th inning. Turnbull would make a nice grab on the run off the bat of Kahnert for the 3rd out of the 6th, Turnbull and the entire team all smiles as #2 in LF would jog back to the dugout only to be notified by Yam that Kang was pinch hitting for him to lead off the inning. 

As promised, Kang would pinch hit for Turnbull and work a 7 pitch walk to lead off the inning. Now it was time for Turnbull to create mayhem on the bases, the now re-entered Turnbull would do just that as the leadoff hitter for the Cards would steal 2nd and 3rd in a span of 3 pitches putting him at 3rd with none out. Sugi would work a walk as well off Van Gorkum spelling the end of a quality outing from the aforementioned Van Gorkum; however, he was responsible for the two runners on. Iverson came in to face Hendriks and on a 1-1 count with inherited runners Turnbull on 3 and Sugi on 2, Hendriks would lace a ball that went to the right-centre gap, the Community centre fielder "Steven Souza Jr.'d" the line drive letting it roll all the way to the fence as Hendriks would give the Cards a 3-0 lead with the stand-up triple. Hendriks would show off his 5-tool ability by again taking off for home on a wild pitch that didn't get too far away from the catcher, his aggressive baserunning and smart instincts led to another run 4-0 Cards after 6. 

Hendriks would get Ramos to fly out but allow the next batter, Hunter to hit a hard double to right-centre field. At 91 pitches, Yam wouldn't let Hendriks see another batter as he brought lefty Miles to match up against lefty Van Gorkum. With the move to go to Miles, Community was getting pretty vocal and prematurely excited as they saw #47 pitch against/for them in a friendly intersquad game no less than a month ago. The Mounties obviously didn't think too much of the left-hander, which is why "prematurely excited" is the best way to describe how they were feeling, because the two batters Miles would face with 1 out was Van Gorkum who would K while Comparelli the next batter would groundout back to Miles for the final out the ballgame. 4-0 Cards the final.

 

VanCommunity 12 CARDINALS 13

With the thought that the Cardinals can't hit soft-throwing pitchers, Community sent Lehman to the mound. While West Coast countered with Crozier for game 2. Crozier had no problem retiring the Mounties in order to begin the ballgame, the same can't be said for Lehman as Van Comm's starter was hit hard, a walk and 4 hits including a booming double off the bat of Powell and a 2 RBI single from Kang led to a quick 4-0 lead for the Cards.

The second inning saw the Cardinals defence in fine form as Hunter would hit a high pop up into 1st base foul territory, with Smythe looking at Miles within an arms reach, the Cardinal first-baseman would reach into the Community dugout and with one foot on Community's ball bucket made a catch that was worth a Kodak Moment. The 2nd and 3rd out weren't too "shabby" too. West Coast would complete their second double play in as many games as with 1 out and a runner on, Comparelli would sky a ball to Powell in RF, Powell would make the routine catch and double off Ramos at 1st who just kept running as his coaching staff emphatically let him know there were 2 outs. A gift as they call it, 9-3 double 'em up. The Cards would tack on an additional run in the 2nd making it 5-0 as Hendriks and Sugi would hit back-to-back doubles for the second time in their last 3 games, the latter of the two doubles just missed getting out of Bird as it one hopped the warning track in right-centre for an RBI ground-rule double. 5-0 Cards after 2.

How's this for a double take when looking back at the scorebook, the 3rd inning kicked off with an 8-3 putout. Mudry-Lee would knock the ball right back up the middle only to watch as Sugi come up firing from centre-field throwing a bullet to Miles at 1st to have a Mudry-Lee who was barely jogging to 1st turning his clear base hit into your everyday 8-3 putout, picture says it all got 'em! Community would muster a run across making it 5-1 after 2 1/2 innings. West Coast would get that run back and more in their half of the 3rd, 3 free passes, 3 hits and a 2 RBI SAC fly scored 5 runs. One of the free passes was a bases loaded HBP that drilled Miles, one of the 2 hits was the second of what would be three doubles from Hendriks in this game this double in the 3rd inning plated 2 runs, the SAC fly was courtesy of Sugi who scored Miles with ease from 3rd and on the double tag Hendriks noticed that the throw from the centre-fielder to 3rd was going to miss everyone and alertly the Coquitlam-Moody stud took off for home, click here for the result at the plate. Yup a 2 RBI SAC fly just happened. 10-1 after 3. 

It was evident that the Mounties were getting a little ticked off that they had lost two reasonably close games against the Cardinals in back-to-back contests, the front-end of the double header probably hurt the most where they outhit the Cardinals 4 to 3 but still couldn't plate a single run and find a way to beat their opposition. The heat was starting to get to both teams, and a 10-1 deficit in the 4th inning probably didn't help as the Mounties coaching staff now started throwing verbal jabs at the Cardinals players and their coaching staff throughout the back-end of the double header. 

With a 10-1 lead Yam put in his subs for regular everyday players including having Powell relieve Crozier after 3 innings of work, and who knows the ticked off Mounties and the hot, muggy weather may have got to the Cards. 3 Cardinal relievers ended pitching the 4th and it was beyond ugly, 4 hits, 3 walks and 2 errors later Miles who relieved Powell and Kang in the already atrocious inning was about to deliver the 47th pitch of the inning, Community was down 10-1 but now only down 10-8 with 2 outs and two runners in scoring position (tying run at 2nd). It was the kid having a monster day there to save the inning, off the bat it looked like a sure line drive single and one that would tie the ball game up but Hendriks (yes, him again!) gave everything he had, full on laid out to his right robbing Hunter of a sure game-tying 2 RBI single, Kodak Moment anyone!?

But let's be real here, the Mounites scored 7 that inning, the Cardinals hadn't let up 7 runs in their last 7 league games combined! And now it was now a 10-8 ball game, a SAC fly in the 5th brought the Mounies within a run and if the Cards weren't pressing before they were now. In their offensive half of the 5th, West Coast padded their narrow 10-9 lead as who else would get a 2 out rally started other than your boy, Cody Hendriks who smacked his 3rd hit and 3rd double of the game (yup, this stud right here), Sugi would re-enter for Suzuki and score Hendriks with a single up the gut, Powell and Baybay would follow suit as the duo hit back-to-back RBI singles giving the Cards a "comfortable" 13-9 lead. Or they thought...

The top of the 6th saw Sugi (the last eligible and available pitcher for West Coast) come in for Miles to shut door and record the 6 out save. 2 singles and a walk put Sugi in a less than favourable position, with the bases loaded, 1 out and the batter (Kahnert) representing the tying run, Sugi would sit Kahnert down on strikes for a big 2nd out. The excitement of Kahnert was short-lived as Hunter would clutch up and hit a massive two out double that cleared the bases making it 13-12, Sugi would work around another walk but strand two runners by striking out Comparelli. 13-12 Cards after 6 complete.

If this game wasn't exciting and long enough for you, here's another great play for you. Mudry-Lee was first to lead off the 7th for the Mounties, down a single run Mudry-Lee would hit a sharp grounder to Miles' right who ranged into the right side hole and flipped over to Sugi who "got over" to cover as Sugi's cleat barely beat Mudry-Lee's cleat to the bag for a very close first out of the 7th. It was evident that the heat, if not already was taking over control, a walk, Sugi's fourth and the 10th from the Cardinal pitching staff in this contest put the tying run on with 1 out. The walk and eventual stolen base by the tying run would become moot as Sugi would strike Garay out for the 2nd out of the 7th. With leadoff hitter, Lott looming on deck, Sugi would get Hanning to ground out to Yuen to end a emotionally and physically draining ballgame, 13-12 Cards your final. 

 

Hard to process what happened in this double header, in the end I guess all that matters are the scores 4-0 and 13-12 wins for your West Coast Cardinals. Kudos go out to Vancouver Community who played hard through this weather, never gave up and kept fighting until the end. Props to New, Cardinals' everyday catcher who caught majority of the DH in this weather, New is without his backup catcher due to injury and thanks to Baybay for stepping in to catch a few innings (looking good!), even recording his first assist as a catcher this year on a dropped third strike. Today's main headline was the kid though, #38 in your program but #1 in your hearts, "Clutchie Dutchie" as the kids call him, or better known as Cody Hendriks was a combined 4/7 with 3 doubles, 1 triple, 4 runs scored and 4 RBIs today, how about a stellar game 1 performance on the mound too (6 2/3 IP, 0R 4H 1BB 5K). 

With Delta's DH split against Kelowna on Saturday, the West Coast Cardinals have clinched first in the 2017 BC (Minor) Baseball league. With a heavy front-loaded schedule the Cardinals never complained and fought through it with everyone on their roster contributing to this first place finish. The Cards never lost back-to-back league games and never lost a game by more than 2 runs, they currently sit at a 25-6 record with 1 game remaining on the regular season schedule. The game on Wednesday at Hillcrest vs. VanComm will allow Yam to rest his regulars as a busy month of July loaded with tournaments, qualifiers and provincials looms.

 

Photo creds to Vancouver Minor's official photographer, Tony Yee. Check out his Vancouver Minor album here. Check out the rest of photos from the Cardinals' 2017 year here.



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