Cardinals Complete Comeback

The Toronto Cardinals showed why they won the MSBL regular season title by breaking open a 6-6 tie in the sixth inning and defeating the York Diamonds 19-9 to win the series 3-2 after trailing 2 games to none.

Mike Rochon picked up the win, pitching his third solid game against York this year. Ray Victorino had 6 RBI and 3 hits for the Cards and Steve Correia had three hits and 4 runs scored. The Cards totaled 19 hits off three pitchers. Jeff Castronaro was the victim of some questionable defense in the 4 run first and the 8 run sixth innings but pitched very well in between. York's offense was again led by veteran Don Cantwell, who went 4-4 and concluded the season hitting a York record, .513 and knocking in 28 runs in just 21 games. Rudy Naraine doubled and tripled for the Diamonds and had 3 RBI. Eric Foley made his first appearance at third base and had a strong defensive game.

Manager Paul Freeman carefully chose his words at the final media gathering of the season :"Obviously we've got to give the Cardinals credit...we had them one batter away from sweeping the series but they still managed to come back. Steve and Rob have done a great job over there and they have great young team and they are a credit to our league."

"We seem to be at a real crossroads with our team, some of our younger guys did not respond well to playing a limited role, and some of the older guys have slipped defensively and that will be an area we have to shore up. Injuries limited our choices defensively as well, which caused us to play some people in unfamiliar places tonight. In the end the responsibility lies with me for the lineups and I can handle the second guessing. In retrospect I should have been forceful in putting out what I thought was the best lineup, regardless of whether it insulted some of our veteran players or not. We know that the status-quo isn't good enough and that we will have to find some new talent over the winter. Some of our veteran guys are going to have to accept reduced roles, myself included. I commend guys like Spanky and Greg for how they have remained very supportive teammates as their roles have diminshed over the years and how Brent kept a positive attitude throughout the playoffs, even when he wasn't playing and probably should have been."

Date: September 2, 2004     Time: 7:30pm      Venue: 9th Line