U16 Thunder fall at provincials, U12 Thunder take bronze

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

Often, a less-than-stellar showing at a provincial meet is tough to forget and sticks with players for a lengthy offseason.
Luckily, for the U16 Strathmore Thunder, they get to wipe away the sting of a poor showing at provincials and focus on the Canada Cup International Fastball tournament, which starts July 16 in Vancouver and runs until July 22.
The Thunder entered provincials with a target on their back after cruising through the Calgary Minor Softball League playoffs.
The Thunder cooked the Nosecreek Chaos 11-4 July 4 in the Calgary final on the strength of a pair of 3-for-4 games from Isabella McIntyre and Natalie Funk, who also combined for five RBIs.
“The Calgary league is the premier league in Calgary and a very strong league in Alberta. We thought we could carry the momentum from that into provincials, but that wasn’t the case,” said Thunder Head Coach Vince Olson.
Quickly turning around from the league finals to provincials, the Thunder got stung by the very same Chaos crew two days later at the provincial championship at the Vista Heights softball diamonds in Calgary.
The Thunder couldn’t tack on any more runs after the first inning ended tied 1-1, as the Chaos piled on three runs in the third and fourth.
The Thunder bounced back nicely and downed the Olds Pistols 7-2 later that evening.
Ashlyn Riley drove in a pair of runs while going 1-for-3 at the dish, and Funk went 3-for-4 with a run scored and one RBI.
Ainsley Olson hurled all seven innings on the hill and struck out nine.
Needing to pick up some wins on the second day of round robin action, the Thunder ran into a pair of stingy pitchers.
First, the Thunder were blanked 5-0 by the Red Deer Rage. The Thunder only mustered five hits, two of which came from McIntyre. Again, Olson threw all seven innings, 140 pitches total.
The Thunder’s dream of advancing to nationals was crushed when they were eliminated by the Elnora Eagles 4-3.
The Eagles scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth, only to see the Thunder answer with three runs of their own in the top of the sixth from Olson and Susanne Sevick.
Unable to keep the Eagles down, Charli Calon yielded a run in the bottom half and the Thunder couldn’t find momentum in the seventh to force extras.
“It certainly wasn’t our best weekend and it was unfortunate to play like that at provincials, but at least we have the Canada Cup to look forward to,” said Olson.
The sting of an early exit at provincials can be quickly masked by gearing up to take on teams from the other side of the world in one final tournament.
The Thunder applied and were accepted to compete in the U16 division of the Canada Cup.
The tourney features a U16, U19 and a senior division, which will feature Team Canada.
In the Thunder’s pool, they will take on teams from Winnipeg and Vancouver and the Chinese Taipei team, among others.
“The girls are going to be surrounded by some very strong teams from all over and we will get to watch the national team play. It will be a great week of competition and a much better way to head into the rest of summer than what we didn’t do at provincials,” said Olson.

THUNDER TAKE BRONZE
The U12 Thunder showed up to play in their provincial tournament last weekend in Sherwood Park.
After dropping the opener 6-3 July 6 to the Calgary Adrenaline, the Thunder bats woke up and put up double-digit runs in four of their next five games, en route to taking the bronze medal.
The Thunder blasted the Edmonton Warriors 11-5, brushed back the Beaumont Blitz 16-10 and thumped the St. Albert Angels 19-1 to close out the round robin.
Finishing as the No. 2 seed in the division, the Thunder took on the top-seeded Irma Tigers and lost 11-7.
“We played the Tigers real tough. They got out to a 5-3 lead early, but we battled back to lead 7-6 heading into what was the eventual final inning. They put up five runs and then we reached the time limit. We couldn’t start another inning after our game went past its allowed length,” said Thunder Coach Mark Screpnek.
In the bronze medal game, the Thunder were pinned against the powerful South Bow River Hot Shots.
Luckily, the bats came alive again. The Thunder got in front 13-5 early and coasted to victory.
“That was a disappointing and heartbreaking loss for the girls in the semis. I’m very proud of how they responded and finished the weekend strong,” said Screpnek.