Thunder gave it their all at Westerns

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Strathmore Thunder U21 girls fast pitch team battled hard and finished fourth with a 4-2 record at the Junior Western Women’s Championships in Surrey, B.C. from Aug. 6-9.
Head coach Lanky Johnson said the tournament was ‘the best play all year was this four-day championship final.”
The club opened the tournament with a convincing 6-1 win over Cloverdale before dropping a tight contest to Saskatchewan UK Royals 3-2 to close out Day 1 of championship. They opened up Day 2 with another 3-2 loss to the North Shore Avalanche, before getting back on track with a 7-0 win over Earl Grey of Saskatchewan.
“After our third game with a 1-2 record, during the team talk I reminded them ‘playing that little bit harder, is needed,'” said Johnson.
“Where you walk out at the end of the game with a bruise or a scrape that win or lose you left nothing behind. From that point on they did dig even deeper and it was a treat to watch them perform.”
Saturday was the best day as the team never looked back. They were able to beat the Vancouver Bomb Squad 6-2 and edge the Fury from B.C. 2-0. The Thunder went into the playoff round as the third seed and was matched up with the Bomb Squad again in the playoff round, but fell 10-7.
“Being the youngest team (18.43 years old is our average age) and all others were 20-21 years of age, they realized that determination and team work is key and they received a lot of compliments from people there as well,” said Johnson.