Tuesday, June 19, 2012

2012 Capital City Cardinals Teams

Congratulations to the WR players that are playing with the Capital City Cardinals Teams out of West Raleigh.  There are now 3 Capital City Cardinals teams playing at three age levels.  There is an 8U, 9U, and 10U team playing travel baseball in NC.

 The 9U team made the gold bracket along with the WR blue team last weekend at the Super State Top Gun tournament in Erwin, NC.  The 8U team played in a Top Gun tournament in Rocky Mount last weekend.  The 10U team is finalizing their roster and has begun practicing.

 The CC Cardinals which we started two years ago has filled a widely felt need at West Raleigh to allow all-star caliber and potential all-star players to continue to play and improve their skills along with other players voted on to the all star teams in the summer.


Monday, December 26, 2011

Capital City Cardinals in 2011

In 2011, the Capital City Cardinals continued it's brand out of baseball out of West Raleigh with a new team of 8 year olds who played some very competetive baseball over the summer winning tournaments and giving the WR red team another run for it's money. Jim Gruskin from the Cardinals in 2010 coached the team in 2011 with his son Christopher from last year being one of the leaders of the team.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Congratulations to last years Capital City Cardinals who made the 2011 WR All-Star teams

Last years first ever Capital City Cardinals team had 5 players make the WR All-Star team. Congratulations to Michael Groves, Jackson White and Will Thistle form making the 9U Red Team. Congratulations also to Payton Bloom who made the 8U blue team this year after not being selected for the 7U Blue team last year. Congrats also to Luke Hayes who made the 7U blue team this year.

Daniel Stephens was selected as an alternate for the 9U red team and was a suprise to many that he did not make one of the all-star teams. Daniel led the Cardinals last year in batting every offensive category last summer and playing short stop and third for us. Daniel has been one of the main contributors for his WR team to become tournament champions this season for the third season in a row (Riverdogs, Phillies, Knights) being the only WR player to have accomplished that during that period.

Daniel was able to play a tournament this past weekend for a team out of Rolesville that lost all three games. They had Daniel play short the whole time as well as pitch. Daniel did very well at short making several plays, no errors, and went 4 for 8 for the tournament with 2 doubles and 5 RBI's. The team, Rolesville Havoc, scored only 10 runs all three games, two of them coming against WR Red who broke open a 5-2 game in the 4th with 16 runs, an inning where Daniel was injured and removed from the game after diving for a ball hit up the middle and jamming his hand into the 2nd baseman's leg. Daniel pitched 3 innings in our 2nd game allowing only one walk and one run.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Capital City Cardinals end summer at IBA National Championship

With only 3 remaining Cardinals from the team that started the summer excited to be able to play summer ball although not being selected to the WR Blue or Red All-Star teams, The Capital City Cardinals picked up enough players to threaten to comeback and go to the semi-finals of the IBA's first ever National Championship. The Carolina Heat however were able to do just enough to hold the Cardinals from coming back and advancing.

On Saturday, the Cardinals could only get 9 players to the field so they played without a catcher which Team Elite and Seagroves were able to take advantage of on several occasions. Team Elite managed to get another of their players ejected and somehow avoided getting the Head Coach ejected though the umpire said to him that he could have ejected him five times. The Seagrove All-stars who we would play next ended up calling the police who came because of the comments and gestures being made infront of the parents and kids. Penn Sealey helped ignite some humour with his fouled off lined shots that hit the mini van parked behind team Elite's dugout. After the first one, the guy yelled out about scratching his minivan as everyone laughed. Then the next pitch, he lined one off exactly like the first one hitting possibly the same minivan on the door as the same guy cried out again to everyone smile and laughter. Team Elite is like the Jerry Springer baseball team. It's a mess but it is something to watch. In this game however, they were able to win. I hate to blame umpires being an umpire myself but they did blow about five calls today that went against us and I did tell them with a smile about it on Sunday after congratulating them for the good job they did on Sunday. Steve, the umpire chief, is a great guy and to his credit he told my son that he robbed him of his shot that went over third base after Daniel flew out to deep left center on that atbat as Daniel hung his head back to the dugout.

Team Heat was a team I knew could hit having watched them in the championship game in the gold bracket last weekend. We were able to stay in the game being down 6 to 5 in the fifth. Everyone, parents and players felt confident that we could and should win this game. The Cardinals struggled with some errors in the 6th again though that allowed the Heat to score 3 more runs and we ended the game and the Cardinals first season 9 to 5.

After achieving some success with the WR players that we put together for this travel select team to win a championship with USSSA and a runner up trophy with Top Gun and Nations baseball, it was nice to be able to keep playing with Will, Anthony, Jackson and Daniel along with some new friends we made from other West Raleigh families that enjoyed being able to experience travel ball and get their spring training in if you will for the fall season coming up. It's not about winnning or losing but about having fun, getting the repititions in, having good sportsmanship and giving it your best for the team win or lose and we did all that this year. Thanks to everyone for being apart of what came together this summer around this wonderful game of baseball.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Cardinals kept from championship game by 1st inning against Level Cross

After allowing 5 runs in the first, the cardinals played great defense the rest of the game allowing no more runs to a good little team called Level Cross. Level Cross scored 7 in last weeks IBA World Series championship game against WR Red that the red team pulled out with an 8-7 win. Both Level Cross and the Cardinals found themselves in the silver bracket this week with hopes of bringing home the championship trophy. In the end, it was Level Cross that would advance as they held on to win 3-5.

After hitting well the first inning and putting 3 runs on the board in the top of the 1st, the cardinals bats went silent with the exception of Daniel who took home the MVP award for the Cardinals going 3 for 3 and making many good plays at short stop including a diving stop to throw a runner out at first. The MVP of Level Cross was the Short stop for Level Cross, Alex Ramirez.

In the bottom of the first, after Daniel retired Alex Ramirez on ground ball to Daniels left, we gave what appeared to be two easy outs, into errors that put runners on 1st and 3rd. Then the hit parade started for Level Cross and we ended the inning 5-3. Our defense then became awesome and in the top of the third, Daniel started us with a triple but we were not able to bring Daniel home.

In this tournament, Daniel went 8 for 10,
Will Matejowski went 6 for 7, Ben Peterson went 6 for 10, Alex Hatcher went 5 for 8 and Ethan Oakley went 5 for 9. The cardinals had 5 hitters with 3 hits and 3 hitters with 2 hits in their first game of the series against the White Sox and went 12 for 20 in their pool play game against Level Cross but were not able to put it together at the plate on Sunday to advance to the championship game.

My son Daniel and I watched the championship game from the sidelines for the 2nd week in a row as Level Cross easily won the championship game of the Summer Showdown. The Cardinals added 8 new players this week as we lost 10 players after finishing our planned 4-5 tournaments for the summer. Will M., Anthony, and Daniel were the only core players to continue from the team we started with this summer.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Play by Play Summary of Semi-Final game against WR Red

Cardinals were in complete control on offense and defense until the bottom of the third when WR took over momentum.

Cardinals loaded the bases with one out in the first inning when Cole bounced into an inning ending double play. In spite of two errors to start the first inning, we got the next three batters out to start the game 0-0.

In the 2nd, Will M. led off with a single,and then Jackson and Rio reached on an error to bring Will home. Luke reached on a fielders choice but then we got two outs to end the inning. WR red managed one hit and Vinnie got on by an error but no more damage was done to end the inning 1-0 in the 2nd.

In the third,the Cardinals started the inning with Daniel getting a single up the middle over the short stops head. Michael reached on an error and Will Tl got a single to bring Daniel home. Payton grounded out to third pushing the runners into scoring position and then Cole reached on an error and Will M singled bringing in 2 more runs. We go into the bottom of the third confident and determined to win the inning leading the WR Red team 5-0.

The WR Red team led off reaching on an error on a grounder to third by Carter Vestal. Jacob single and Richie reached on a fielders choice. Garret singled and then Elmo reached on an error. Reid doubled. We then finally get an out and then end the inning on a double play but the WR Red win the inning and the score is tied 5-5.

In the fourth, Luke hits a grounder to third but is thrown out by the ever so steady hands of Timothy Pate. Tim Werner then singles. Chris hits a double and Tim rounds third and challenges Richie's arm at 2nd. In what was a very close play, Tim was called out at home. Jordan then grounds out to the pitcher and we end the top of the 4th without adding to our run total. WR Red start off the bottom of the 4th with two singles and then after getting two outs, an error at short and a single by Carter allow for three more runs to score. After 4 innings, WR Red now lead 8-5.

With the game on the line, Daniel steps up and does an amazing job fouling off pitches way out of the strike zone but the last pitch was too far above his head to reach with the bat so the inning starts off with a K. Michael and Will then ground out to end the 5th, 3 up and 3 down. WR red are at the top of the order and quickly go to work tacking on two insurance runs to end the 5th 10-5.

Top of the 6th for the Cardinals. The Cardinals who played so well to start the game don't hold their heads down but end the game on three ground outs to lose valiantly to a the WR Red Champions, the 2nd group of All-Stars out of West Raleigh when we were the 4th team chosen. Great job Cardinals and as the Chief umpire said after the game, "You have nothing to be ashamed of, you played the game the way it was suppossed to be played. If i was going to start a team, I would want a group of boys just like you." We are proud of you boys. You played the best team in the IBA World Series and had a good chance to win the game and win the World Series.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Capital City Cardinals take early lead in semi-final game but lose to WR red in IBA World Series

The Capital City Cardinals entered the IBA World Series and made it to the semi-finals to play against the WR Red team. The Cardinals loaded the bases with one out in the 1st inning but Cole hit a hard ground ball up the middle that the red team turned into an inning ending double play. The Cardinals continued to hit and play strong defense and led the game 5-0 until the bottom of the 3rd inning when a series of errors and some good hits by the red team allowed them to come back and tie the game 5-5. The Cardinals almost went ahead again in the top of the 4th with a run to make it 6-5 when Tim singled and then Chris doubled. Tim using his speed to take him home was nailed on a very close play on a good throw from the WR Red second baseman. The red team took over the momentum then with three more runs in the bottom of the 4th to make it 6-8. Will Thistle made a fine play on a throw to tag a runner out but the runner was called safe by the umpire saying he tagged him with his elbow and not the glove. Michael also had a runner tagged out at third but tagged him with the glove with the ball in the other hand. The Cardinals were not able to claw their ways back into the game and lost with dignity 10-5 to the WR Red team who went on to win the World Series championship game against Level Cross.

We entered the tournament along with 11 other teams in New Market, NC for a tournament that was delayed throughout the weekend with rain and lightning. After losing to the WR Red team in pool play 14-1 and the Seagroves All-Stars dropped out not wanting to play on Sunday, we were placed in the gold bracket instead of the silver bracket. While this meant we would possibly get a chance to play against the #1 seed WR red again, we also knew that the competition would be the toughest as well. The Cardinals were the #5 seed and the first game was against #3 seed Team Elite. After the rain delay and the field was an inch to two inches deep in water, the Cardinals coaches and parents were working to drain the field with brooms and rakes to get the game started. In what was a long game in a very long tournament, the cardinals were able to advance to the semifinals having beaten Team Elite 6-3.

After losing in the semi-finals to the WR Red team after what seemed like a game that we were going to win, the chief umpire told our kids not to hold their heads down. He said, "You guys are a class act in every way. You have nothing to hang your heads about. You play the game the way it supposed to be played. If I were starting a baseball team I would want a group of boys just like you."

All the coaches were very proud of our kids for how well they played and carried themselves on the field. The tournament revealed enough of the quality of baseball and community that we have at West Raleigh to merit a comment like that from umpire Steve Heath, someone who had not known us before. After the final game, he also looked at the WR Team and called them a class act. Hold your heads up Cardinals.