MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- It was a perfect weekend for Moose Jaw Minor Fastball as hosts of the Softball Sask U11 A Â鶹ÊÓƵ Provincial Championship this past weekend.
There aren't many other ways to describe it when two teams from the local organization end up playing for the provincial championship in the gold medal game on Sunday afternoon.
In the end, the Moose Jaw Ice Breakers capped off an undefeated weekend with a 6-3 win over the Moose Jaw Ice Crushers at Optimist Park, with the two teams combining to lose a single game all tournament.
“The weekend was exciting, throughout the whole tournament teams were putting their best foot forward and it’s really good for Moose Jaw Minor Fastball when both Moose Jaw teams are in the final of the Â鶹ÊÓƵ provincials,” said Breakers coach Chad Topp. “Our girls stayed up, they persevered through a lot of ups and downs and did a great job all weekend.”
It was a busy one, too, with the Breakers playing seven games total and combined with the Moose Jaw ‘A’ tournament last weekend, 16 games through their last two tournaments.
The Breakers opened with an 11-4 win over the Regina Saints and 7-2 win over the White Butte Storm Thunder on Friday before wrapping up their round robin with a 3-2 win over the Regina Royals Rage and 7-2 win over the Swift Current Sonic on Saturday.
Things kept rolling along in the quarter-final with a 7-1 win over the Regina Lazers and the Breakers booked their spot in the final with an 11-0 over the Lumsden Cubs.
The Crushers got things done on their side with a 12-4 win over the Regina Royals Rampage before dropping their lone game of the weekend, a 12-3 loss to the White Butte Storm Lightning on Friday night.
It was commanding win after commanding win right to the final from there: 8-3 over the Regina Lazers, 13-2 over the Estevan Elite, 13-5 over the Regina Royals Rage in their first playoff game and 8-5 over the Weyburn Wild in the semifinal.
The title game was close throughout, with things tied up 3-3 through three innings before the Breakers took the lead for good in the fourth and held on for the 6-3 win in the five-inning contest.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better ball game,” Topp said of the final. “There weren’t a lot of walks, there were fundamentals that we taught the kids and great sportsmanship and leadership…They did the work, we just guided them, and they did a great job.”
Provincial ‘A’ tournaments continue this coming weekend with the U19s in Saskatoon and U13s in Regina. Keep an eye on Softball Sask for schedules and updates.
