Magic brings home gold

Times Reporter

 

The Strathmore Magic Junior B Women’s Fastpitch team took home the title of Provincial Fastball Champion in late July, and now has one more title to put under their belt – Western Canadian Fastpitch Champion. 

“We lost two games. We lost our second game against Victoria, and against Saskatchewan 2 we lost, but we ended up being in second place,” said coach Jim Songhurst of their round robin standing.

Being in second place gave them the chance to go for gold, and the determined team did just that. Songhurst said in junior B and senior B the top two teams advance to the Westerns, which took place from Aug. 4 to 7. This was not the first time the junior B team has made it to Westerns, though it was the first time they’ve won a gold medal.

“We’ve been to the Western Canadians now since 2004, but this is the first gold medal we’ve won. We’ve won bronze and silvers a few other times, but this is the first time we’ve brought home the big one,” said Songhurst. 

“Obviously they just played super ball. There was never a time that they were out of any game. We had a couple of extra inning games that were really tough, there were some very good teams there,” said coach Ron Walmsley. 

Twice the team won an extra inning game by just one run. Magic played the gold medal game against Prince Albert, a team they had lost to before. 

“Our girls were really on a high. They were there to win and there was no fooling around, they didn’t want to go out. All they wanted to do was play ball for four days,” said Walmsley. 

Next year the team will move up to play senior B, and go into an even tougher category. Walmsley said there would still be the same coaching staff. With the girls moving into the senior B division there leaves a gap to be filled by a new junior B team. 

“We aren’t going to have one, we’re hoping there will be one but we won’t be coaching it,” said Walmsley.

“We’ve sort of recruited a couple of people, one of them is an ex-player of mine, and we’re hoping that they will put a junior B team together and play out of Strathmore as well. But that of course isn’t finalized yet, and it will probably be a while before it is.”