Altona Blazers win provincial bronze
Sports
Posted By Greg Vandermeulen
Updated 1 month ago
The Altona Blazers shut-out Killarney 12-0 to take home the bronze medal from the Female Peewee "B" Fastpitch provincials in Steinbach on July 11.
Coach Henry Sawatzky said a devastating 13-10 extra inning loss to Morden in the semi final did not prevent the girls from working hard in the bronze medal game, despite being robbed of a chance to compete for gold.
"We regrouped," Sawatzky said. "We knew we needed to focus and move on."
That was tough to do. The Blazers seemed to have Morden on the ropes at one point. With the game tied in the fifth, the Blazers had the bases loaded, with only one out, but were unable to score even one run.
Sawatzky said Morden played a good game. "We played hard and came up short," he said. "Morden played really well."
The team did rally however, scoring five runs in the first inning to take a commanding lead. They added a single in the second and six in the fourth to get the win.
The Blazers played strong all weekend.
In the round robin they beat Portage 12-5, Russell 8-7 (extra inning victory), and Carberry 8-0 with their only loss going to Southdale 4-0.
In the playoff round they beat Neepawa 8-2 before coming up short against Morden.
Their 12-0 victory over Killarney in the bronze medal final ended the weekend on a high note.
Sawatzky said strong hitting and patience from his batters, as well as solid defence made the team successful.
"Our defence was very strong," he said. "We didn't walk a lot of people, and we made the plays with very few errors."
Tactics at the plate worked well. In the final, the team started with some "small ball" using bunts to get Killarney scrambling.
The solid weekend paid off as the members of the Blazers came home with bronze medals.
