Martine bolsters Cardinals lineup

JT Martine traded highway drives for line drives this summer.

For that, the Brandon Cardinals are grateful. The former Brandon Marlins AAA player, who spent the past two summers with the Pembina Valley Orioles of the Manitoba Junior Baseball League, has been a key piece of the Cardinals’ lineup all year.

He helped them finish second in the South West Baseball League’s South Division at 10-4, earning home-field advantage for the division semifinal series against the Deloraine Royals (8-6).

“Pembina Valley’s loss is our gain. He really enjoys ball and you can see the family loves baseball and practises all the time,” said veteran second baseman Chris Kennedy.

“He works hard, shows up and is happy to play any position and can do it all.”

Brandon opened the series with a 3-0 victory on Tuesday at Andrews Field, as Adam Hartman pitched 6 2/3 innings before Jeff Wiebe stepped in with the bases loaded to strike out the last batter and complete the shutout.

Game 2 is in Deloraine tonight at 7 o’clock, with Game 3 back at Andrews Field on Thursday at 7 p.m., if necessary.

Brandon moved Martine around in the field, but kept him near the top of the batting order, and he delivered with 28 hits on 52 at-bats — second only to Oak River’s Ty Paddock (29) — for an average of .538.

Martine racked up 24 runs and 18 RBI, both good for third in the 11-team senior AA league.

It was a big jump from his 2025 season with PV, when he hit .234 with just 15 hits on 78 plate appearances.

“The junior level, they do throw harder, but at the same time they’re not as smart, pitching-wise, as the senior guys,” Martine said.

“Junior was a very good league but everyone was still young, still a lot of throwing balls around. I find senior to be cleaner.”

Martine was one of the elite fielders in the league that year, with a .977 fielding percentage and 80 putouts.

While the SWBL doesn’t post fielding stats, he’s been solid again at third base and left field. Martine noted the guys around him make it look easy.

“Paycen Warkentin and shortstop can cover a ridiculous amount of ground, whether it’s a ground ball or a pop-up,” Martine said.

“Same with Brady Nault in centre field — a ridiculous coverage area between those two.”

The young corps, including Warkentin, Nault and first baseman Xander Eilers, has led the team offensively at the top of the order. Nault piled up 20 hits, with Eilers adding 18 with 13 RBI and Warkentin chipping in 15 hits and six stolen bases.

Defence starts with pitching, and both Martine and Kennedy have been impressed with their staff.

Adam Hartman, Brody Pinkerton, Jeff Neufeld and Jeff Wiebe each earned two wins with more than 16 innings pitched on the year. Nolan Chastko jumped in for two games, earning two wins with a 1.17 earned-run average.

“We lost a few arms last year and they kept it together for us,” Kennedy said, adding Pinkerton did more than just pitch to help the Cardinals this year.

“It takes a lot of fundraising and effort to make a season work like this. You have guys like Brody Pinkerton and (catcher) Brady Potter that are behind the scenes working hard to make sure when guys get to the diamond they can focus on baseball.”

Martine certainly appreciates the way the veteran group has welcomed him in.

“It’s been lots of fun just getting to play with them,” he said. “They always invite us to everything after games. They include you in everything and they give everyone a chance to play.

“They’re really easy to talk to and a really good group of guys.”

The winner of the Cardinals-Royals series moves on to a best-of-five division final against the Boissevain Centennials or Wawanesa Brewers.

The Centennials thumped the Brewers 7-2 on Monday to open their series. Wawanesa hosts Game 2 tonight at 7 o’clock.

If the Brewers avoid elimination, the deciding third game is in Boissevain on Sunday at 6 p.m.

YOUNG GUNS BOW OUT

The Brandon Young Guns were on a fast track to the playoffs at 6-4, but finished the season on a five-game losing streak, including a 6-0 loss to the Hamiota Red Sox.

That earned Hamiota a tiebreaker at home against Brandon, which it won 5-4 on Monday night.

The Red Sox scored two runs in the seventh inning to tie it 3-3, then gave up one but scored two in the eighth to secure the last North Division playoff berth.

The Red Sox visit the top-seed Oak River Dodgers today at 7 p.m. Game 2 is in Hamiota on Friday at 7 p.m., with Game 3 back in Oak River at 6:30 p.m.

The other North Division series began on Tuesday as the Rivers Comets hosted the Reston Rockets.

Game 2 is tonight in Reston at 7 o’clock, with Game 3 in Rivers on Friday at 7 p.m.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com