ESTEVAN —
ESTEVAN — The Carlyle Cardinals' dynasty in the Saskota Baseball League continues.
The Cardinals scored three times in the sixth and final inning to defeat the Southeast Diamondbacks 4-2 July 28 at Lingelbach Field at Mets Stadium, and win their sixth consecutive Jack Harbourne Cup.
"We say every year it never gets old," said coach Daniel Rasmussen. "Every year, there's always something to take from the year. It's special. It's always special. It's not an easy thing to win, and we don't take it for granted by any means."
He believes it was also the most dramatic of their titles. The Cardinals were down to their final strike with two outs in the sixth, but then Ty Fehrenbach knocked in the tying run, and Brent McLean hit a two-run home run to put the Cardinals in the lead.
"The final game … it was probably one of the top two or three games I've ever been a part of," said Rasmussen.
He believes the Cardinals' experience helped a lot. McLean has been playing for 25 years, said Rasmussen, who has 17 years of experience.
"I wouldn't say we've seen it all, but we've been in those situations before and it's just a never-say-die attitude. We know what we've got, and that experience goes a long ways," said Rasmussen.
Six of the players have been there for all six championships, he said, and others have been there for multiple titles. A couple of young players won their first Harbourne this season.
Adding to the significance of the latest title for Rasmussen is that all of the players who competed for Carlyle in the year-end tournament were born and raised in the town, with the exception of one player who has lived in the community for 15 years.
The final was supposed to be played in Carnduff the day before as the culmination of the Harbourne Memorial Tournament. But thanks to the combination of a thunderstorm early July 27 and a needed tie-breaker game, the final had to be pushed back a day and played at the home ballpark of the top-ranked team in the final.
That was the Diamondbacks, who had the best record in the league during the regular season at 10-2. It was their first appearance in the league final.
"They've come a long ways in the last few years. Last year they squeaked in as the eighth seed, and they were probably the best eighth seed. They lost a lot of one-run games last year, and they added some pieces. They were a very strong ball club," said Rasmussen.
Carlyle (10-3) had the second-best record in the league during the season.
"There's a lot of good young talent in the league, and it makes it fun," said Rasmussen. "It makes it a lot of fun to go out and play some tight one-run ball games."
The Cardinals opened the tournament with a 2-1 win over Redvers July 25 in Carlyle. Once the competitions shifted to Carnduff, they defeated the Estevan Tap House Wolves 8-4 and the host Carnduff Astros 4-2. Then they beat the Oxbow Chiefs 4-3 in the semifinal on a walk-off hit by Mitch Himmelspach.
"The way the whole weekend played out, there was a lot of close baseball games. Every baseball game we were in this weekend, they were close games," said Rasmussen.
