The Estevan Elite U16 girls provincial softball team ran out of innings last Sunday in Regina, while trying to secure a spot in playoff action at the Softball Saskatchewan B Girls Championship draw.
The Elite lost a tiebreaker game 6-4 to the Saskatoon Lasers after finishing the round-robin tied for second in their pool with a record of 3-1. The team needed a win over the Lasers in the tiebreaker for second place to secure a playoff berth.
Mike Wilson, head coach of the Elite U16 girls provincial team, said the club “ran out of gas” against the Lasers after coming out strong with their bats in the first inning to take an early 3-0 lead. He said Saskatoon then took advantage of some Estevan errors on the field to jump ahead in the later innings.
“We just couldn't hit the holes,” said Wilson. “We did hit the ball, it's just that we hit it right at them. They had some timely hits (and) we had some timely errors and it cost us some outs that they scored (on), and we just couldn't really battle back.”
The Elite U16 secured a spot in the tiebreaker game by compiling a 7-5 win over Regina, a 13-12 extra innings victory against the Unity Panthers, a 10-8 loss to the Saskatoon Lasers and finally a 4-3 upset win over the top-ranked Prince Albert Aces during the round-robin tournament on July 3 and 4.
Wilson said the team, which is made up of players from Estevan and surrounding communities, should be proud of their success in the tournament, considering they were only together for about a month before the draw began. He said to beat the eventual U16 B girls provincial champion Unity and knock Prince Albert out of the picture entirely is a major accomplishment on its own.
“I'm very proud of the girls and the effort they put forward for the provincials,” he said. “They played well, (but) just basically fell short of our goal. Our goal was to make playoffs and then from there (advance) into the provincial final, but we just didn't make it. We just fell short.”
