Cardinals fly over Chevys in tournament win

Cardinals fly over Chevys in tournament win

Ryan Quigley

Journal Pioneer

Summerside player-of-the-game Nic Gunning throws a pitch.

SUMMERSIDE- The Cole Harbour Cardinals took an early lead against the Summerside Chevys and never looked back to win 12-5 Sunday afternoon in the Summerside Source for Sports Mosquito AA Tournament championship at the Gordie Arsenault Field.

Summerside was led by their Most Valuable Player winner Nic Gunning and Dylan Thomas who went 2 for 2 in his plate appearances. Cameron Wall was credited with the loss pitching for Summerside.

Cole Harbour were led by Zach Byard, named Most Valuable Player of the game for Cole Harbour, and Ryan Doyle, who both went 2 for 3 while pitcher Jarret Conrad was credited with the win.

Summerside Chevys coach Nick Creelman said he was proud of his team’s effort in the loss.

“We played the full six innings strong, I couldn’t be prouder of the boys,” he said. “They made Cole Harbour earn the win.”

He said the second inning was the Achilles heel of the team on Sunday.

“We ran into walk trouble early in the game,” he said. “Other than that we hit the ball hard, we battled through the sun.”

The Cardinal’s coach Calvin Byard said his team playing 100 per cent was a key to their victory.

“We have a very deep pitching staff too, so that helps at this level of baseball. The competition (in the tournament) was very decent.”

Byard said the Chevys team reminded him of his own.

“They have really good hitters and play defensively very well. I think what happens in these games, because of a pitch count from all the provincial rules and regulations, sometimes teams get where their pitchers are not their starter pitchers.”

After one and a half innings of 0-0 baseball, the Cardinals were able to rally five runs in the bottom half of the second to take the lead. After a scoreless Chevys top of three, the Cardinals scored four more runs to lead the game 9-0.

It wasn’t until the fourth inning the Chevys rallied behind to score four runs and tighten the score. But in the bottom half of the fourth inning, the Cardinal scored two more runs to make the score 11-4.

After another scoreless inning for the Chevys, the Cardinals scored one more in the bottom of the fifth.

The Chevys were able to score one more run in the sixth before the Cardinals got the final out to win 12-5.