*This article was originally published on Alberta Dugout Stories on September 13, 2023. You can read it here.

September 16, 2023

By Joe McFarland

Alberta Dugout Stories

Cydnie Moore must be looking forward to her next trip to the Maritimes to play baseball.

She must also have to pack light, knowing she will likely be bringing back some hardware to lug around the airports.

The Calgary product has put the finishing touches on what turned into a great summer where she helped Alberta earn bronze as a player at the Open Women’s National Championship in Halifax and Upper Sackville, Nova Scotia and as a coach at the 16U Girls National Championship in Summerside, Prince Edward Island.

It was also her first foray into coaching at the provincial level.

“It’s going to be my proudest year as a ballplayer and as a coach,” Moore told Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast.

“I’m a very proud Albertan and to be able to do it again as a player and as a coach is very heartwarming and brings me a lot of pride to be able to do what I do.”

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Listen to Alberta Dugout Stories interview two-time Team Alberta bronze medal winner Cydnie Moore here.

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If she has it her way, the 20-year-old is only just beginning to scratch the surface of her potential in both capacities.

“ALBERTA GREASE”

Moore started the season with her home association, Centennial Little League in Calgary, before joining forces with her Baseball Alberta teammates to prepare for the Open Women’s tournament.

They met a few weeks before to get to know each other a bit both on and off the field, before boarding the plane to Nova Scotia for the July 27-30 event.

The team opened things up with a 10-3 loss to B.C. before beating Ontario 7-4 and losing to Quebec 8-3.

They then edged Saskatchewan 13-12 in a thrilling back-and-forth quarterfinal before losing 9-1 to Quebec in the semis to set themselves up for a bronze medal matchup with the hosts.

Despite the trials and tribulations of the round-robin and first two rounds of the playoffs, Moore says they were still dancing and keeping it light in the dugout.

“We just kind of decided that we had each other’s backs and if we were going to do this, we needed to trust each other,” she said. “We were dancing to ‘Cadillac Ranch’ as true Albertans do.”

Riding a 108-pitch gem and the first-ever complete game from Fort McMurray’s Sydney Barry, Alberta claimed bronze with a 5-4 victory.

Moore says it was a pressure-packed tournament, but one that was the definition of the team: gritty.

“We coined a term that has been around for a while: Alberta Grease,” she said. “Not winning a ballgame until the seventh inning, we had to grind pretty hard and dig deep to be able to win some of those games and really push through.”

The experience also provided some unexpected foreshadowing for what was to come less than a month later.

REPEATING HISTORY

You can’t blame Moore if she was feeling a little “déjà vu” when she arrived in Prince Edward Island for the 16U Girls Invitational Championships, which was played August 24-27.

Even though she was coaching and not playing, she says the stress level was high as Alberta had to once again handle the peaks and valleys of a short tournament.

After a heartbreaking 11-10 loss to Quebec to start off the championships, the team blasted Nova Scotia 15-0 then lost 12-3 to Ontario and beat B.C. 24-7.

In the playoffs, they knocked off Quebec 2 4-0 in the quarterfinal and lost another heartbreaker, 13-12, to Ontario in the semifinal.

Once again, Moore and her Team Alberta squad would have to turn things around quickly to set themselves up for a bronze medal game.

Leaning on her experience from just a month earlier, she says her message to the team was straightforward.

“It was, ‘You earned it,’” she said. “The girls worked hard to get to where they needed to be and they needed to prove right there that they needed a medal.

“The coaches and all of the staff there were saying ‘work hard, play the ballgame you know you can play and let’s take home another medal.’”

Edmonton’s Claire Hingley was a difference-maker in the game, striking out seven in six-plus innings of work while picking up three hits in an 8-3 victory over Newfoundland and Labrador. She and Spruce Grove’s Sydney Klebanosky had a pair of runs batted in to lead the team offensively.

Looking back on it, Moore says it was a great experience getting to coach at the provincial level for the first time.

“Coaching at this level is totally different – it’s next level and it’s elite,” she said. “My experience was definitely a great time and I enjoyed every second of it, as I learned a whole bunch from Desmond (Boutillier) and Greg (Reiniger), and I’m excited to see where Baseball Alberta will take me with my coaching career.”

INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION

With those two experiences in her back-pocket, Moore is also able to bring it back home to Calgary, where she has become a vocal advocate for the women’s game.

She is the vice president of girls baseball for Centennial Little League, and is the driving force behind Girls With Game YYC.

Moore says she wants to help raise the profile of the women’s game, and to give girls an opportunity to see what is possible, which is something she didn’t understand until she was a teenager.

“I want other generations and the up-and-coming athletes to be able to see that there is a possibility to be able to play with other girls and play with like-minded, strong individuals,” she said. “Having girls grow their baseball IQ and help them be able to see the diamond and see the game the way I see it.”

Whether she is playing or coaching, Moore says she learned a lot from Team Alberta and Baseball Canada Women’s National Team veteran Kelsey Lalor when they first played together in 2019.

She remembers being awestruck at Lalor’s stoicism on the diamond and her knowledge of the game, which is something that was passed along.

“I remember in one game at the 2019 Open Women’s Nationals, the pitcher walked the first couple of batters,” Moore said. “She (Lalor) looks at me and goes ‘if you go up swinging, she’s thrown eight-straight balls, so don’t swing,’ and I had never seen that before.”

As much as she has been trying to help her teams win on the national stage, Moore says she tries to be a sponge wherever she goes, learning from national players like Lalor, Kaitlyn Ross and Madison Willan.

She hopes to be an inspiration for the younger athletes on the teams that she plays on or coaches with, so that they can one day take their games to the next level.

Moore hopes girls and young women will give the game a chance and not be dissuaded by failure.

“Work hard and persevere,” she said when asked about her advice to those new to the game. “As much as baseball and being a female in baseball is hard, it gets easier over time as you become more confident in your abilities to do what you do.”

Savvy advice from someone who has overcome her own obstacles to travel the country, represent Alberta and come home with some well-earned hardware.