by Coach Trish Preston
The Beachin’ U11 Provincial Women’s Softball Association (PWSA) Saugeen Shores Sting travelled to LaSalle to take part in the Tier 1 PWSA Ontario Grand Championship. The girls were ready for action and wanting to show the softball community that they can compete with the top teams in Ontario.
(Top L-R) Avery Sachs, Addison Kuntz, Charlotte Fitzsimmons.
Up first was the host team, LaSalle Athletics Green. Right off the hop the girls had to overcome adversity, with our pitchers, Aadi Kidd and Avery Sachs struggling to get the calls, the Athletics batters not swinging and one of our pitchers, Marisa Barfoot, going down early with an ankle injury.
After three innings, the Sting found themselves in an 8-0 hole, but they didn’t travel 4 hours to quit! The girls battled back, scoring 6 runs with the help of a Lexi Gruberbauer grand slam to bring the team within 2 runs. Excellent catches were made in the field by Lexi, Avery and Charlotte Fitzsimmons. Unfortunately, just as the Sting looked to be turning the table, the game was called due to the time limit resulting in a loss for the Sting.
The girls had to shake off the loss quickly. Next up was the Stratford Flames, one of the top teams in the tournament. Our goal was to keep this game close for as long as possible with strong defence and what job the Sting did! The team went seven full innings against this power house team and our pitchers Aadi, Avery and Marisa each managed to throw a scoreless inning and kept the runs limited in the other innings. Our catching trio of Camilla Cameron, Layla Zdunich and Alison Thede provided solid backstopping all game. Great defensive plays were made by Julia Foster, Addison Kuntz, Lundyn Carr, Charlotte, Avery and Alison. At bat, the girls were making contact against these strong pitchers, but couldn’t manage to get the ball past Stratford’s strong fielders, with only Addison managing to get on base with a double. After seven innings the score was 6-0 for Stratford, however anyone who was there will agree the Sting played an excellent game and really impressed!
Our final game was against Halton Hawks, again a top team in the tournament. Once again we set our goal to stick with this team as long as possible and again the girls delivered. After the third inning the score was 3-1 for Halton. Both Avery and Aadi had managed to throw a scoreless inning.
The tension was rising and Halton was starting to panic. In a desperate move in the 4th inning, the Halton coach instructed his batters to bunt. And bunt they did. For 5 straight batters the Sting tried to stave off the attack with bunt defence, trying desperately to get the tag on at home plate. The bunting strategy proved to be effective and as soon as the bunt play was called off, Halton’s bats came alive, leaving our fielders not knowing what hit them.
In the end, Halton came out on top 13-2, but that score was not a true reflection of the game, as the Sting battled hard and held off this strong, experienced team until they used tactics we have not experienced before. The last time we faced this team we did not manage a single hit and this time our batters got on base 4 times, with Lexi, Julia, Addison and Avery all recording a single. Every player made contact with the ball during the game, which is something we have struggled to do against these top teams, so this was a huge improvement for our team! Excellent plays in the field were made by Reese Martindale making a great stretch play while covering first, Marisa with a high fly ball catch at the mound and Alison popping up to grab a bunt and touching home to get the runner out.
In the end, the team left Grands with their heads held high. In our pool, we faced off against the eventual champion (Halton) and bronze medal winner (Stratford). Two thirds of this team was new to competitive softball and far exceeded everyone’s expectations by not only qualifying to play in the top tier, but also giving two of the top teams in Ontario a run for their money. Everyone now knows the Sting is not a team to take lightly. The coaching staff could not be any more proud of this group, not only with their skill development, but also their dedication and determination. It was a pleasure coaching these girls!
We would like to thank our team sponsor, Beach’ in Port Elgin and all the individual player sponsors. Your financial support was greatly appreciated. We would also like to thank the parents and extended family who supported us all season with snacks, shade, cheers, practice help and pitcher warm-ups. It was a season to remember and we hope to meet on the diamond again!
