CARNDUFF - The Carlyle Cardinals' drive for five has been fulfilled, as the club has won its fifth consecutive Harbourne Cup as the Saskota Baseball League champions.
The Cardinals defeated the Estevan Tap House Wolves 3-0 Sunday evening in Carnduff to win the Jack Harbourne Memorial Tournament. In addition to their fifth straight tournament, it's the fourth time in five years the Cardinals have defeated the Wolves in the final.
Brent MacLean, who has been a member of the Cardinals' organization for 24 years, said it's a special feeling to win five straight championships, because the Cardinals haven't done it before.
"We hit well and we pitched well. That's the one thing about our team, is we've prided ourselves on pitching and defence, so that's pretty much the same story as it's been in the past," MacLean said in an interview with the Mercury and SaskToday.
During the Harbourne tournament, they scored a lot of runs. When they trailed in a game, they fought back and had timely hits.
The Cardinals didn't lose a game in the Saskota league this year. They went 13-0-1 during the regular season to finish first. Then they went 5-0 during the Harbourne.
The tournament opened Friday night with games in the communities of the top four seeds: the Cardinals, the Carnduff Astros, the Weyburn Sun Devils and the Oxbow Chiefs. In Carlyle's case, their opening game was a 7-6 victory over the eighth-seeded Southeast Diamondbacks – a game the Cardinals trailed 5-3 in the fifth inning. The Cardinals rallied, and scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
"That game woke us up and got us into the tournament. We knew it wasn't going to be easy that game. It was a tough eighth seed to start off with," said MacLean.
Once the tournament shifted to Carnduff, the Cardinals defeated the Wolves 13-2 in four innings and the Chiefs 3-1 on Saturday to finish the round robin with a 3-0 record.
Carlyle won 10-0 over the Redvers A's Sunday in the semifinal.
The tournament was tougher this year, he said. They had three really good games. The final was a tight matchup; last year Carlyle needed just four innings to dispatch the Wolves.
MacLean believes seven players have been with the Cardinals for all five seasons of their dynasty. They added just one new player this year.
Support from the community has helped.
"We always have lots of fans at every game. It's always awesome to have all of the people come out and cheer us on."
The Wolves were 2-1 in the round robin. They defeated the Chiefs 8-2 Friday, lost to the Cardinals on Saturday and defeated the Diamondbacks 9-7 Sunday to advance to the playoffs. Then they beat the host Astros 12-7 in the semifinal.
The Harbourne Tournament was held in Carnduff for the first time this year. MacLean said the Astros did a great job of hosting the tournament. Carnduff has an option to host the event again next year, and MacLean looks forward to being back in Carnduff.
"They have a really nice facility and they did a good job," said MacLean. "Their guys were around all weekend and kept the diamond in good shape. It's a nice diamond and it was really well run."
The Arcola Threshers were the other team entered. Three teams didn't make the Harbourne; the Kenosee Cubs' season ended last Tuesday when they lost a play-in game against the Diamondbacks, while the Moosomin Badgers and the Kipling Royals missed the playoffs.
Up next for the Cardinals is the Baseball Sask senior AA Tier 1 provincial championship in Regina from Aug. 2-4.
