Play Ball! Beachin’ PWSA Saugeen Shores U13 JR Sting play in Halton Hills

by Coach, Trish Preston
The Beachin’ Saugeen Shores U13 JR Sting took to the fields in Halton Hills for their first PWSA Fastball tournament of the year. The girls have been practicing indoors all winter and were ready to finally see some outdoor game action.
                                          Pre-game huddle
Up first was a hard hitting team from Cambridge. The game got off to a quick start with both teams hitting the pitchers hard in the first two innings. Charlotte Fitzsimmons lead the way with three hits. Lundyn Carr, Reese Martindale, Alison Thede, Aadi Kidd and Lexi Gruberbauer contributed to the hit parade with 2 hits each. After the top of the fifth the game was tied 13-13. This set the stage for Lexi to hit an absolute bomb to centre field, cashing in Alison to win the game! Pitching duties were shared by Aadi, Avery Sachs and Julia Foster. Strong defensive plays were made by Avery at second, Charlotte at shortstop and Aadi at first base.
First thing the next morning, the Sting team was at the diamond ready to take on the Aurora Diggers. This game proved to be a much closer affair, with neither team mustering many hits. Aadi, Addison Kuntz, Avery, Marisa Barfoot and Julia all took an inning on the mound, with a combined ERA of 3. Once again the Sting team found themselves tied in the bottom of the fifth. A timely bunt and steals by Marisa lead to Aadi reaching on a miss played fly ball, allowing Marisa to cross the plate. The Sting was victorious again in walk-off fashion! The final score was 6-5. The highlight of the game had to be the triple play made in 5th inning when Aurora was pressing to take a controlling lead. Aurora had runners on first and second with no outs. A sharp line drive was hit just over second base. Avery leaped up and caught the ball, touched second to catch the girl off her bag, turned around and fired the ball to first where Aadi caught the girl off the bag at first to complete the triple play! As the umpire said, “You don’t see that too often!”
                                                                Pink in the Park Day
The next game saw the Sting face a strong Oakville team after an extended rain delay. Aadi and Julia shared pitching duties and did a good job at limiting the strong bats of this Oakville team. In the end, the Sting just could not get their bats going, resulting in an 11-0 loss.
The final game of the day was against the Brampton Blazers. The girls were ready to get back on the scoresheet and came out swinging in the first inning and never looked back. Avery, Addison and Julia shared the mound and held the Brampton girls to only 2 hits and 2 runs. The offence was lead by Aadi, Alison and Camilla Cameron with timely doubles and Avery with a huge triple. The defence was strong again this game and extra sneaky. In centre field, Marisa played the ball, threw it to the cut off and caught a player attempting to turn a double into a triple. Back catcher Camilla teamed up with Alison at third to pick off a runner who thought she had all the time in the world to get back to the bag (she was wrong). The game ended in a 9-2 victory for the Sting. This resulted in the Sting taking third place in pool play and a rematch with Cambridge the next morning.
Cambridge was looking to avenge the walk-off loss on Friday. They threw everything they had at the Sting and the girls responded well. Aadi and Avery managed the majority of the innings, with Julia and Marisa coming in for relief. Defensive plays were plenty this game. With Lundyn making plays at first, Lexi at short stop and Charlotte, Avery and Alison making great catches in centre field. The Sting were pushing for a comeback in the top of the sixth. With runners on, back to back huge hits to centre field were caught to record the last two outs of the game. The Sting came up just short with the final score 8-4 Cambridge.
The first weekend of ball was a huge success and the team made great adjustments to the new rules of U13. Some key injuries played a factor throughout the weekend, but the team managed to adapt and work together as a team to overcome these challenges.
The next tournament is here in Saugeen Shores at the Battle at the Beach. Come cheer on these amazing ball players at Lamont Sports Park the weekend of June 8th.