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First game will be full of emotion.
The Cardinals first game of the season, and home opener will be filled with emotion for the team and the community. Matt Perkins, a second year pitcher with the Cardinals and one of the Bluffton University players has been tapped as the first starter for game one. In the past three years, Hall of Famer Bryan Reid has started every game first game for the Cardinals.
"It will be weird handing the ball to someone other than Reidy," stated Coach Victor Canales. "But, Matt was one of our best pitchers last year and had a great year for his school, especially considering what their team had gone through."
The Bluffton team had been through much this year after surviving a fatal bus accident on the way to their spring training games this year.
One of the other Bluffton players who had signed up to play this summer will add even more emotion to the day.
William Grandlinard, a Freshman at Bluffton and South Adams graduate, was to play for the Cardinals this summer. However, in the accident, William's pitching arm was broken. He has recently had his cast removed and will begin rehab on May 21. William will be on hand on opening day and will throw out the ceremonial first pitch, as well as his first pitch since the accident.
"William has been through so much. But, he is a baseball player. Even through his injury, when he couldn't throw, he stayed with the Bluffton team and shagged batting practice for the team. We wanted to make sure that he knew we were eagerly anticipating his return to baseball and that he will have a Cardinals jersey with his name on it for next summer." Stated Coach Canales
The Cardinals open up their 50 game slate with a double header on May 26th at geneva baseball field with a first pitch slated for 3:05 p.m. against the North Side Fury from Chicago. The first 24 fans will receive T-shirts compliments of Radio 92.7 WZBD and the first 100 fans will receive fans compliments of Jay County REMC.
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New Redbird earns honor, other Cardinal news
Ryan Munro, a 5-8, 180 pound freshman from Ft. Wayne, Ind., hit safely in 10 of 19 plate appearances last week, helping lead Vincennes to five victories. In three of the five contests, Munro posted multi-hit games, including two three-hit performances against Lake Land College on April 2 and Lincoln Land College on April 5. His single best performance of the week came in game one against Lincoln Land on April 5 when he went 3-for-4 from the plate with three doubles and seven RBIs. He followed that performance with a 2-for-4 performance in game two with five RBIs. For the week he finished with 10 hits, three doubles, one homerun and 14 RBI's. Munro was honored by the National Junior College Athletic Association with it's player of the week honor for this performance.
Other Cardinal notables,
Matt Holycross is 1-0 for manchester college this year. While Corey Oetting has homered once for the Spartans.
Kraig miller has homered for the Maple Leafs of Goshen while former Redbird Nate Colclasure is hitting over .400 for the Leafs.
Matt Hille is hitting .341 for heidelberg College this spring while Andrew McFarland is 3-0 with a 2.25 ERA.
Matt Perkins has a 3.60 ERA for the Beavers of Bluffton University
Julian Bostleman and Bryan Simon are both hitting .300 for the Falcons of Bowling Green State while former Cardinal Travis Owens is also hitting .298 this spring
Jaime Feldheiser has a save and a win for the Bulldogs of Butler university.
The summer is looking good for the Cardinals as their players continue to improve and look hungry for the summer.
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2007 Season Wrap up
The Cardinals have finished up the 2007 season at a slightly disapointing 16-25 on the year. The Cardinals dropped 12 games by one run during the season, which could have turned a mildly successful season into a great one. We are happy to report, however, that many records have been tied or broken this year, please refer to the all-time team records page for more information on that.
Now it is time to announce this years post season award winners.
MVP- This was a very tight race, at least three players could lay claim to this honor with their stats and their abilities. However, it came down to who we would want up to the plate if the game was on the line. Consistently, this player was up to the plate and came through.
Erik Hisner team MVP 2007
Cy Young- This race was nearly as tight. After all was said and done, one player lost out because of moving up to the great lakes, and one player lost out with a few bad innings. That left two players. While one was a reliever and one was a starter, in the end, we felt we had to go with our best chance of winning.
Jaime Feldheiser team Cy Young 2007
Newcomer of the year- This award goes to someone who had played semi-pro in the past, but was new to our team. This player was an outstanding performer throughout the year and contributed to a lot of the success on the team with his bat and his attitude.
Newcomer of the year, Matt Hille
Rookie of the year- you only get one chance to win this award, your only a rookie once. Their were three players in line for this award. One had the pedigree, but didn't come around until midseason. That left two players. One played all out at all times, one had the ability to deliver game changing plays at any time. In our mind, it was hard to differentiate the two, so.....
Co-rookie's of the year, Kris Nealeigh and Julian Bostleman
Please also take the time to congradulate our move ups for 2008 that we already know of
Great Lakes League,
Matt Perkins, Anderson Servants (Great Lakes)
Kris Nealeigh, Anderson Servants (Great Lakes)
Makr Miller, Alexandria Aces (Cal Ripken League)
Preliminary contact has been made with
Matt Hille
Thanks for another great year, every year I enjoy it a little more, I hope that you fans and players enjoy what we have done and continue to support the Geneva Cardinals in 2008!!!!!!!!!
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Current call-ups
The following players have been called up to the sponsored wood bat leagues.
Colin Ziegel- Valley league, Waynesboro Generals
Chris Opel- Livonia league, Michigan Bulls
Mark Miller- Great Lakes League, Columbus All-americans
Links will be added to their teams as they become available.
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May 8, 2008 --
The Geneva Cardinals have announced that Matt Holycross will start the 2008 season opening game against the Van Wert Legion. The Cardinals are undefeated on opening day including wins over the Springfield Bulldogs, the South Bend Senators, the Great Lakes Captains and the Van Wert Legion.
"We are confident that Matt will continue our tradition of excellence on opening day." stated head coach Victor Canales. "Matt has been with the organization for 4 years now and has grown into an outstanding pitcher. We will put up great run support for him and he will do what he has always done, pitch well and pitch with confidence."
Opening day starters in the past have included Matt Perkins, and hall of famer Bryan Reid. Opening day is May 24th at 5:00 P.M.
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Help the Cardinals Raise Money!!!
Do you read? Great! Do you want to help the Cardinals raise money? Sure! Do you want subscriptions cheap? Well duh! Look up at the left hand corner of this page where it says "Help my team raise money!" Click it and it will take you to a magazine website to order from that will save you money and make us money. We get to keep 40% of the profit and you save money off your subscription. If you already have a subscription renew it and we still make money. We have a lot of things that we are going to be doing this year. If you could help us with this one thing that would be great!
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