SMETHPORT — The Southern Tier Cardinals are playing their best baseball of the summer, and at the perfect time, too.
After posting a 9-6 win over Core Athletics on Friday night, the Cards wrapped up a round robin tournament win at home on Saturday with a 5-4 win over Olean-based Twin Tiers and then an 11-2 shellacking of the Galeton-based Knuckleheads.
For manager Dick Ognen and his charges, the tourney win went beyond the box scores.
“It was nice for (the players) to just compete in front of people and their families and towns and to see some normalcy to life again,” Ognen said. “A big thank you to the people who helped put this together, from families to the Borough of Smethport.”
After Friday night’s shootout with Core Athletics, the Cards found themselves in a back-and-forth affair with Twin Tiers in Saturday’s opener.
Twin Tiers initially grabbed a 2-0 lead after two frames before Tre Slawson put the Cardinals on the board with a sac-fly. Andy Jekielek followed with a two-run single to put Southern Tier ahead, 3-2.
The teams continued to battle to a 4-4 tie going into the bottom of the sixth and final inning. Facing a time limit, the Cardinals needed to score lest they settle for a tie.
Jekielek singled to begin the inning, and then a few batters later, Chase Burdick lined a two-out RBI double into deep center field to secure the win.
“Andy had a phenomenal tournament, and so did Justin Peterson and Chase Burdick,” Ognen said. Peterson was crucial in the Cardinals’ win over Core Athletics on Friday night and came up big again in their victory against the Knuckleheads. “We had some big-time hits and timely hits.”
The Cardinals also had a monster outing from pitcher Alex Ognen, who went all six innings, allowing the four runs on seven hits. He struck out nine and walked just two.
The story from the mound was much the same in the 11-2 win over the Knuckleheads, as Jacob Costanzo (5 strikeouts, 2 walks) allowed just one run in three innings of work, and then Jekielek (2 strikeouts, 1 walk) gave up just one run in an inning of work.
The key for all three pitchers was hitting the zone and not issuing walks, according to Ognen.
“They challenged hitters and went right after them. They controlled the inner part of the plate, trusted their stuff and it paid off,” he said.
Costanzo’s and Jekielek’s efforts were rewarded handsomely by their teammates, as the Cardinal offense plated eight runs in the top of the third inning to blow the game open.
Leading 2-0 entering the inning, the Cardinals used six hits and three errors by their opposition during the inning to extend that lead to double digits, 10-0.
Peterson led the charge with three RBI, while seven other Cardinals also plated one in the game.
“We had a lot of momentum at that point, and I think (the Knuckleheads) were tired in that game. They played the 2 o’clock game, and then they had us at 4,” Ognen said. “They had run through their pitching in the game against Core Athletics and we were in a right time, right place situation. Our batting’s been getting better every game, too, so it went hand in hand.”
The Cardinals will look to keep that momentum going this weekend in a 14-team tournament in Orchard Park, N.Y. The team will be down an arm, but Ognen is confident his team can handle its business as long as the pitching staff continues to roll.
“It’s survival with a short (pitching) staff, but we have a lot of pitchers so if we can get them to go deeper into the game and use less instead two or three in a game, we’ll have a chance to get through pool play,” Ognen said. “We’re starting to play our best baseball, so hopefully we continue to keep it up.”
After Orchard Park, the Cardinals return home to Smethport for the J Bird Wood Bat Classic set for July 31-Aug. 2.
