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Cardinal Roster
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Cardinal Statistics
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Cardinal Schedule
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MIAC Standings
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MIAC Statistics
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| 2006 Final Records: 2-18 MIAC, 6-28 Overall |
| Cardinal News and Notes: The Cardinals' Dan Cosgrove (South St. Paul, Minn.) was the team's offensive leader in virtually every offensive category a year ago, including batting average (.355), hits (38), doubles (8), triples (2), home runs (2), RBIs (22), total bases (56), slugging % (.523), walks (14), on-base percentage (.439) and fielding percentage (.981). … … Cosgrove was the Cardinals’ lone representative on the 2006 All-MIAC team, while temamate Kevin Black (Mahtomedi, Minn.) was an academic All-MIAC selection. … Brady Knudsen (Racine, Wis.), who finished second to Cosgrove with 21 RBIs, led the team with seven multiple-RBI games, while Robbie Johnson's (Lake Elmo, Minn.) seven-game hitting streak was a team high. … SMU closed out its season on a season-high nine-game losing streak. During that span, the Cardinals were outscored 91-36. … The Cardinals were outscored in every inning but the seventh and eighth, including 32-8 in the second inning and 50-21 in the fifth. … SMU outscored its opponents 25-14 in the seventh inning, but were still 2-27 when trailing after six innings. … The Cardinals finished 0-6 in one-run games and just 1-15 when scoring two or less runs. … SMU won just two of 20 games in which its opponent scored first and the Cardinals were 0-20 when they were outhit by their opponent. |
Cardinals are eager to turn things around in 2007
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Brady
Knudsen 21 RBIs, 7 multiple RBI games in '06 |
It's not that Whaley is avoiding the question, it's just that — like every member of the Cardinal team — Whaley has erased 2006 from his memory bank.
That was then — this is now.
If you want to talk about 2007, take a seat and listen up, Whaley has plenty to say.
"We're not dwelling on (2006) — that was last year's box score and what we're trying to do now is focus on creating new box scores in 2007," said Whaley, whose Cardinals struggled to a 6-28 overall record a year ago, dropping its last nine games. "We've got 15 new players who weren't a part of our past, and our just excited to be here and eager to help this program move forward."
Yet, while Whaley & Co. are eager to leave the 2006 season in their review mirror, he also admits that there are aspects of last year that can benefit the Cardinals' future.
"As much as we'd like to just forget about (2006), we want to take last year and use those struggles to fuel our focus — to energize us so that we can meet the challenges that lie ahead," said Whaley. "It's a balancing act — on one hand, you want to bury the past and forget it and move on, but on the other hand, you hope that what happened a year ago has left a bad taste in everyone's mouth and pushes them harder to improve."
And Whaley has already taken steps towards improvement, bringing in a number of talented freshmen to provide the Cardinals with some much-needed depth.
"I think right now we've got a very good mix of returners and newcomers," said Whaley. "The biggest difference between this year and last is that we have competition at every position — players are going to be pushed for playing time, and that type of competition can only make everyone better."
Despite a solid fall practice, Whaley isn't about to make any bold predictions heading into the 2007 campaign, but the Cardinals' veteran coach is certain of one thing — his team will give every team it faces a battle from start to finish.
"Our goal the start of every season is the same — to work to get better every day," said Whaley. "We don't have any expectations as to our (win-loss) record or (conference) finish. But I do know that we will play hard, stick together and compete every time we take the field."