Pee Wee AAA Cardinals Season Comes to an End

They say that all good things must come to an end, unfortunately, that meant the baseball season for the Miramichi Pee Wee AAA Cardinals finished on Sunday morning in Quispamsis, as the Cards suffered a 7-5 loss to the Riverview A's.

With a shot at provincial glory on the line, the Cards and A's were locked in a tight pitchers duel for most of this one. Miramichi starter Zach Newman was strong throughout and began the game with a 6 pitch first inning and then proceeded to rip a solo homerun in the bottom half of the inning to stake Miramichi to a 1-0 lead. Riverview bounced right back in the 2nd when centerfielder Cole Wright scampered home on a fielder's choice to tie things up at 1-1.

The score remained deadlocked into the 5th inning as Riverview starter Justin Drapeau was solid on the hill and benefitted from strong defensive play behind him. Finally, in the bottom of the 5th, Ian Watters drilled a double to the gap and came in to score on a ground ball by A.J. Adams. Then Max Martin and Jonathan Russell hit back to back doubles to put the Cards ahead 3-1. Riverview refused to go down quietly as they rebounded with two runs of their own in the top of the 6th to knot the score at 3-3.  Newman helped the Cardinals regain the lead as he led off the bottom of the 6th with a single and came around to score on a hit by Ben Forrest. The Cards managed to load the bases with only one out, but were unable to score any more runs.

Miramichi entered the final inning with a 4-3 lead and were only 3 outs away from moving one step closer to the title, but it was not meant to be as the A's rallied for 4 runs in the top of the 7th to pull ahead 7-4. However, as they have done all season, the Cards would continue to battle away and started the bottom of the 7th with leadoff hitters Russell and Trey Dunnett both reaching base. Russell would come around to score on a fielder's choice and the Cards put the tying run on base, but A's closer Benn Carson managed to end the Cardinals season by getting a pop up to first base to finish the game.

The Cardinals coaching staff could not be more proud of all of the players on the team. They are a fine group of young men, both on and off the field and were a pleasure to coach throughout the season. As tough as it is to have the season come to an end, the team had a very successful year going 20-19 and reaching the provincial semifinals, but more importantly new friendships were made, life lessons were learned, and the kids had fun, which is what it is all about!

Thanks to the parents for all of your support over the past three months. Obviously AAA baseball requires a strong commitment and you guys were awesome!

Best wishes for a great off season and hopefully we will see everyone back at the field next year! - Joey