Thunder ends weekend with 5th place finish

Times Reporter  

 

The Strathmore Boston Pizza (BP) Thunder bantam ‘A’ girls softball teams hosted the Western Canadian Championships for the girls and boys August 9 to 12. 

Strathmore pulled off a great weekend, advancing into the tiebreaker format to advance into the final four playoff round. All four teams were tied for the third and fourth place spots after the round robin. 

Strathmore, Calgary, Fleetwood and Kelowna were all forced into extra games. Kelowna moved on to play Strathmore after defeating Fleetwood. 

The two teams had met earlier in round robin play, with Strathmore defeating Kelowna 9-2. In the final match up between the two teams Kelowna was able to get on the board early and stay ahead, defeating Strathmore 7-0. The Strathmore Thunder walked away with a fifth place finish from the Western Canadian Championships. 

“Our team had a great run on the weekend, with one game somehow slipping away that cost us a third place seeding after round robin play. We had just jumped out to a 7-2 lead against Winnipeg and had full control of the game and somehow out of nowhere, the next inning was completed and we were trailing 10-7,” said BP Thunder coach Lanky Johnson.  

“It was so innocent as it unfolded and that loss cost us the opportunity to finish in third seed prior to the playoff round and not having to play tie breaker games.”

Saskatoon went to the finals against Conquest. It was a big surprise in the finals when Conquest took the two winning runs of the game. Saskatoon had scored at least 10 runs in every game they had played, and went into the gold medal game with an undefeated record of 7-0. Conquest had only suffered one loss prior to the final game, and that was to Saskatoon earlier in the page playoff. 

The Conquest Coyotes won the gold medal with a score of 2-0. 

“Overall on the season this was a fantastic year with these young ladies. In the beginning we had goals set to be sure as a first year “A” level team, that we work hard and learn how to be competitive,” said Johnson.

“In the end we got a bronze medal in Alberta “A” provincials then a 5th place in Western Canada Championships. That is worth GOLD and they deserve to feel proud of themselves. It will take few days for them to get over losing out, but it will slowly sink in and as we have told them all along ‘the game will pay you back’ for all the effort they put in this year and they are amazing athletes.”

In the boys U16 final Saskatoon took the lead 9-2 against the Prince Albert Astros.