Heisler Cardinals take BRBL championship second year in a row

Game 1 of the Battle River Baseball League playoff finals took place on Tuesday, July 23 in Rosalind, with a BRBL record crowd in attendance.

Mother Nature provided beautiful weather for a ball game. The two teams gave the crowd many reasons to cheer, making some incredible diving catches and great hits, steals, and close calls.

Once the dust settled, the Cards had won 9-5, to lead the best-of-three series 1-0.

At the top of the first, Rosalind pitcher Dan Enright went right to the top of the Heisler batting order and sent the first three batters back to the bench.

Cardinals’ pitcher Nolan Miller, with help from his defence, was able to get out of a jam in the first by leaving the bases loaded and zeros on the scoreboard.

During the second inning the Cards bats were hot, with Kriss Wolbeck hitting a two-run homer, followed by a solo from Cody Wolbeck to give Heisler a 4-0 lead.

The A’s had a couple of hits and threatened to score on a sacrifice fly, but a brilliant catch from fielder Devan Herder, coupled with an on-point throw to Blaine Wolbeck behind the plate, made the tag possible and kept the A’s scoreless after two.

The A’s bats came alive in the bottom of the third, bringing five runs across the plate to make the score 5-4 in favour of the home team, with a pitching change for the Cards, with Braden Erickson taking the mound and getting the final out of the inning.

In the sixth, Cody Wolbeck hit his second homer of the night, driving in two runs for the 6-5 lead for Heisler. Fans for both teams had to give credit for a ‘ring-a-ding-dong dandy’ of a hit!

The Cardinals added one more in the fifth and a pair in the sixth for the 9-5 lead and the win after shutting down Rosalind’s offense.

Game 2 of the finals was in Heisler on Thursday, July 25, and the Cards were looking to clinch the series and earn their second consecutive BRBL title, while the A’s were hungry for the win to tie the series and force a game three in Rosalind.

Once again it was a perfect evening for ball, and fans from all over Flagstaff County and beyond came to catch the action. The two teams did not disappoint with a tense, close game.

The A’s had Ty Herder on the mound while Heisler gave Cory Martz the start.

They were both able to shut down the offense early on until Heisler finally broke through in the 4th inning on a Todd Steil ground-out to score brother Trent from third base.

Both teams were able to get runners on but some nice double plays and a few runners caught stealing allowed the score to remain 1-0.

Heisler threatened again in the sixth inning, having runners on second and third with just one out. After a failed safety squeeze, Braden Erickson came up with a clutch two-strike, two-out base hit to score both runners and give the Cardinals a little breathing room going into the seventh.

Rosalind’s bottom half of the order was able to rally in the seventh, however, eventually scoring one run and loading the bases with no outs.
The A’s scored their second run on a fly ball to left making it 3-2 with runners on second and third and two out.

Heisler decided to intentionally walk the A’s hard-hitting Ty Herder, setting up a showdown between Cory Martz and Ryan Yuha.

Martz was able to get Yuha to roll over on a ground ball to shortstop Todd Steil, who flipped it to Trent Steil at second for the force, handing the Cards their second straight BRBL title against the Rosalind Athletics with a 3-2 win.

Heisler will continue its season in provincial play during the August long weekend in Calgary, where last year the team picked up the silver medal.

Call or email us today if you would like to order a copy of the July 30 Front Page (framed or unframed), or a print of the team photo.