The August long weekend brought plenty of excitement and thrills for a group of young women, their coaches and fans from 麻豆视频east Saskatchewan. 听The 麻豆视频east SuperNovas qualified for the Western Canadian 听U14B Softball Championships in North Battleford with their silver medal victory at provincials in early July. 听The team, composed of players from Alameda, Carlyle, Whitebear, Alida, and Wawota headed to Western鈥檚 unsure of what they might accomplish. The team also picked up one player to bring along to Westerns. 听Leah Weinkauf from Macklin, a great pitcher and all round player who had stood out to to the Novas in some previous meetings, 听was invited to join the team and was a fantastic fit. 听By Sunday night, August 6th, they found out they truly belonged at an elite level as they returned home as the number 4 U14B girls team in Western Canada.
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Western鈥檚 started on Friday, August 4th. 听First up was a game with the number 2 team from Alberta, the Lloydminster Liners. 听It was tight game until the final inning and the SuperNovas played a little nervously and Lloyd got the jump on them in the last bats and took the game. 听From there though, the Nova鈥檚 settled in. 听They won 4 straight, beating both the number 1 and 2 teams out of Manitoba, the Manitoba Thunder and Westman Magic. They blanked the number one team from Alberta, the Sherwood Park Storm, and put in a dominating performance against the 麻豆视频 Delta Invaders from British Columbia. 听The SuperNova鈥檚 headed into their final game of the round robin on Sunday with a 4-1 record. 听That final game put them up against a powerhouse team from Surrey B.C. called the Storm, and what a game. 听The SuperNova鈥檚 came out flying and took and early on had an 8-1 lead. 听Then things tightened up and the Storm started chipping away and when all was said and done Surrey had come back to take the game 11-9. 听The coach from Surrey remarked after the game that this was one of the toughest tests they had faced all season. 听He was more than impressed that a few small rural communities could put together a team that could compete with and scare the daylights out of a team that plays year round (up to 80 games in a season). 听
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That loss left the SuperNova鈥檚 with a record of 4-2, tied with Lloydminster and Unity, Sk. after the round robin. Good enough though for playoffs. 听 Run differential placed the Nova鈥檚 3rd, and that meant a meeting in the 3-4 playoff game with their perennial nemesis, the Unity Panthers. Unity has been a thorn in these girls side since they first started playing provincial ball back in first year 12 and under. 听This year once again, Unity foiled the Nova鈥檚 plans at Provincials, coming from behind in the Gold Medal game. 听The Nova鈥檚 were looking for payback at Westerns, but it wasn鈥檛 to be. 听Hard as they tried, the 麻豆视频east squad just couldn鈥檛 find the open spots on the field when they were batting and lined out or flew out time after time, leaving them with a 12-3 loss and and end to their Western title dreams. 听听
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Once the sting wore off though, reality set in. Out of all the U14 teams in Western Canada that had tried to get to this point, the 麻豆视频east SuperNovas had finished as the number 4 team. 听 听A group of outstanding young ball players from rural Saskatchewan had shown Western Canadian softball that we had the talent to compete with anyone, big city, small city or other communities just like ours. 听Coaches Larrie Rae, Carrielee Rutten, and Autumn Barta along with Manager Steve Schultz praised the girls on their work ethic, commitment, and desire. 听Larrie Rae said it was "truly and honour and a joy to coach the girls and he along with the rest of the coaches and management couldn鈥檛 be prouder." 听
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Manager Steve Schultz said The SuperNova鈥檚 would very much like to thank the dozens of fans who made the trek to North Battleford to cheer them on, and all those who tuned in online as many of the games were live streamed on the internet. 听Also a big thanks to the sponsors of the club, the parents and families for their time and behind the scenes help. 听None of this gets done without all those who鈥檝e chipped in this season, allowing the coaches and players to focus on practice and games. 听"We鈥檝e got a taste for what these athletes can do鈥� said Schultz, 鈥渁nd each of us, player and coach is determined to try and get back here again!"听
