The towns of Stettler and Castor saw a lot of great ball action as they hosted the U14 and U12 ‘C’ provincials respectively over the weekend, Saturday, July 16 in Stettler and Friday – Sunday, July 15-17 in Castor.
Although rain played spoiler once again in Castor with the games being cancelled on Saturday and postponed to Sunday, the Stettler Dingers U12 put up a great performance and secured a third stop, winning bronze.
In the round robin, Stettler girls defeated Sylvan 14-11, Wetaskiwin 18-3, Calgary Nose Creek 16-6 and Airdrie 10-9.
With a 4-0 record, the Stettler U12 went into semi-finals with a lot of confidence but unfortunately lost to Drumheller 10-9 at the end of a tight game.
Playing West Valley, a team out of Calgary, in the bronze medal game, Stettler won 15-13.
“The girls fought back during their bronze game for the win,” said coach Marsha Mailer. “All the girls played excellent all weekend, with solid pitching and catching throughout.”
Stettler Savages U14 places fourth out of 19 teams
The Stettler U14 girls played Elnora in the semi-finals on Saturday, July 16 losing a great game, which put them in the bronze medal game against SBR Calgary.
“We held the lead throughout most of the game but Elnora refused to give up,” said assistant coach Kevin Shuckburgh. “Elnora has played us tough all year, so we knew going in we would have to coach and play an error free game, we came close, but not close enough.”
Although the girls took an early lead in the bronze game, dominating 5-0, their opponents played a more determined game to beat them in the end by a good margin.
“In the game against Calgary everyone was deflated coming off a huge loss,” added Shuckburgh.
Weighing in on the games, coach Sarah Tucker said, “With Elnora we battled hard, and everyone played with their heart and soul, and we were winning until the fourth inning,”
“In our bronze medal game we were unable to come up with the runs and fell short,” added Tucker. “But I am so proud of these girls because they had a fantastic season. All of us coaches left the ball diamond feeling good with what the girls learnt and how they played and we can’t wait for next year.”