The Carlyle Cardinals fought hard to finish out their season at the 2025 Senior AA Western Canadian Baseball Championships in Westlock, Alberta. The team had previously secured titles for the Saskota Baseball League and the provincial tournament.
Coach and player Brent McLean talks about their performance over the weekend.
"We had a really good weekend in Westlock, Alberta, for Westerns. It was some really good baseball, and we played pretty well. We were able to make it to the semifinal, but unfortunately, we fell short in the semifinal."
The weekend did get off to a bad start, but the team was able to claw back progress afterwards.
"We lost our first game 4-0. We had a really good pitch performance by Danny Rasmussen, but unfortunately, we weren't able to score any runs. In our second game, we played against a team from Kelowna. We won that one 1-0 after another unreal pitching performance by Cody Rock. Then, in our third game, we played the Cartwright Twins, which was a bit of a homer fest that we were able to come out on top of; we won 11-9."
After the match, the team had a rematch with the Twins in the semifinals, which went poorly.
"That put us in second place in the tournament so far," said McLean. "We faced off against Cartwright again in the semifinal. But we ran into a bit of a buzzsaw with their pitcher, and we lost that one 11-0, and that was the end of the tournament for us."
That loss ended their play for the weekend, with McLean saying their performance was solid up until then.
"We played really well in the first three games. The last game was a little bit tough to swallow. But we knew we were facing a really good pitcher. We'd actually lost to that same guy in Westerns for the last time we went. So we knew we were in tough against him."
The tournament is a finale for the Cardinals' 2025 season, though a few players are heading to a national tournament in Regina. Looking back on the year, McLean calls it a milestone achievement for the club.
"That was a really good season. When you look back at it, we were able to win the league and win provincials and make the semifinals at Westerns. It was probably the best year on record for the team. So it was a good year."
As McLean rests up in anticipation of next year, he thanked everyone who supported the team over the year.
"We had some really good fan support in Westlock, actually. We had probably 20 fans or so who made the 10 or 11-hour drive. So that was really nice to see."
The Cartwright Twins would end up winning the tournament, defeating the Winnipeg A’s 4-2 in the finals.