Knights’ season ends in third game of ‘A’ District tournament

By JAMES TUBB on July 29, 2025.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

The Medicine Hat Knights of Columbus Knights’ season came to a close over the weekend.

The Knights lost 12-8 Saturday to the Tri-County Cardinals at the ‘A’ District tournament hosted in Lewiston, Mont. They led the Cardinals 8-3 heading into the seventh inning before allowing 12 runs to fall in their third game of the tournament.

“That was a really tough loss,” head coach Cole Schreiber said. “I felt pretty comfortable going into the game with the guy we had on the mound, and he battled for us. He kept it close and we were in the game through three or four innings. We were able to put a big inning up and we had a good lead going into the last one and we were sitting OK.

“In baseball sometimes things just happen and things get a little bit out of control. They got two hits to start the seventh and things just don’t go your way sometimes.”

Ethan Bowey started the game for the Knights, working four innings allowing three runs on five hits and five walks with two strikeouts. Liam Cunningham threw two innings, allowing three runs on three hits and three walks. Ryan Ziebart took the mound in the seventh and worked two outs, one a strikeout. Ethan Grad worked the final out.

All three of Kane Bishop, Miller and Ziebart had two hits and an RBI in the loss. The Knights put up five runs in the bottom of the fifth for their lead. Losing in late fashion, Schreiber says there’s lessons to be learned for both graduating and returning players.

“You can’t ever assume that you have the game wrapped up and it’s not to put blame on anybody, things just happened,” Schreiber said. “The momentum that Tri-County got there, we just weren’t able to shut the, down. They had a couple hits early, they had a ground ball up the middle that we had a play on that ends up skipping off second base and into the outfield and we don’t get an out there.

“Sometimes the luck just doesn’t go your way. But at the same time, you try to do everything you can to just collect those last three outs.”

The Knights finish the summer with a 22-21 record. They opened the District tournament with a 9-3 win Thursday over the Fort Macleod Royals before losing 10-4 Friday to the No. 1 seed Havre Northstars. The Vauxhall Spurs won the Northern ‘A’ District tournament, beating Havre 7-0 in a five-inning game due to weather.

Looking back on the summer, Schreiber says there was a lot to enjoy, and moving forward he says there’s a lot to be excited about.

“Through the course of the summer this might be one of the most improved teams that I’ve ever been a part of and that speaks volumes about the two assistant coaches we have,” Schreiber said. “They did a great job this summer working with all our guys and it speaks a lot about the character of the kids too because if they’re not willing to get better, there’s nothing you can do. So I tip my hat to them.

“For us to go on the run in the second half of the year, that speaks volumes about the group. We have a good group of kids, a lot of these guys have a couple years left in our program and some of them are going to move up Monarchs, but we have a little bit more depth in these couple age groups than we’ve had in a while. So it’s definitely exciting.”

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