The Unity Cardinals will host the Wilkie Brewers for their first baseball game of the 2014 North Saskatchewan River Baseball League season. The game will also be the first of the season for the Brewers.

A couple of familiar faces will be missing from the Cardinal lineup. Ryan Greenwald is recovering from shoulder surgery but hopes to be back as a contributing member of the team before the end of June. Keith Heitt’s new job will make it difficult for him to get to most of the games so he has elected not to return this year.

While they didn’t play last year, Daniel Feser, Scott Greenwald, Mike Ganter and Thomas Duhaime have all worn the Cardinal uniform before. Player/coach Regan L’Heureux says they “are back working around Unity so they are going to be suiting up.” Rhett Feser also hopes to be a more frequent contributor this year.

Rhett and Blake Robertson are both playing on midget teams out of town but with most of their midget games on weekends, they will join the Cardinals in NSRBL play when they can.

L’Heureux said, “Every year we set two goals. In league our goal every year is to qualify for playoffs, then take it round by round and go as deep as we can. In provincials our goal is to qualify for the provincial tournament, then we’ll challenge ourselves to repeat our championship performance from last year.”

The Brewers are coached by long-time player/coach Bye Braun.

Both teams are looking forward to the May 27th game, each anxious to get the jump on their rivals right off the bat.

Here’s a photo from last year’s season opener between the two teams: