Sox get tangled

Times Reporter

 

The Calgary Red Sox finished first in their league play within the Calgary Women’s Softball League – they only lost one game all season. However, at Provincials from July 19 to 21, the Red Sox finished 2-2 in the round robin, and lost to the Strathmore Magic in the playoff round. It was the first time they’ve lost to the Magic all year.

“We had the talent, and we had the coaching. I mean, we’ve been so strong all season,” said Red Sox outfielder Katie Coulter, originally from Strathmore. She believes it became more of a head game than a game on the field.

“We were strong, we had such a successful year. We thought we were fully prepared. But honestly, we just beat ourselves,” she said. “The teams that beat us this weekend are teams that we have beat all year. There’s no excuses there, we know we’re a stronger team than what we showed up as.”

By finishing fourth, Coulter’s team will not advance to Western Finals in Saskatoon. Alberta usually sends their top two teams, but is sending the top three teams this year, as BC did not submit any. The Red Sox missed out just by one spot.

“We had goals set out for our whole season,” said Coulter. “One of them was to finish first in our league, which we accomplished. We also had a goal to be in the money, in all tournaments, and we accomplished that goal. Obviously Provincials was another goal, but we failed that one. So now, our last one is to win the league playoffs, so we’re not going to let up. We’re just going to go hard for that, that’s all we can do.”

Coulter’s team will have played the semi-finals in their league play by July 23, but results were not available at the time of print. Coulter said this past weekend’s slump will just make the team even more motivated to be successful in the city playoffs.

Even with the unexpected finish, Coulter was glad to come home to the field she was raised on.

“It’s definitely comfortable. I’ve played so many tournaments here over the years, like we’ve hosted Provincials, when I played with Strathmore we hosted many times, we hosted Westerns here. I grew up on these diamonds,” she said. “I played as hard as I could and laid it all out there, and you just hope for the best.”