The Jarvie Jaguars’ undefeated regular season and playoff run came to an abrupt end last week in the championship final of the Edmonton Youth Softball Association.
Playing against High Park, the team they had beaten 12-0 in their opening playoff game, the Jaguars lost 10-8 on July 2 and 9-2 on July 3 to wind up league silver medallists.
“They faced a pretty good pitcher both games,” said coach Albert Burchett, explaining the High Park pitcher threw faster than the girls had been used. “They just didn’t quite catch on.”
The EYSA playoffs were a double-knockout tournament, so a team wasn’t eliminated until it lost twice. That meant had the Jaguars won on July 2, they would have been champions, Burchett said.
Instead, by losing on Wednesday, both teams had one loss, necessitating the July 3 game.
The championship loss may have been a disappointing end to the season, but the team still had a good series of results nonetheless.
Setting aside the Jaguars’ undefeated regular season, the team represented the Pembina North Minor Ball Association very well.
In two tournaments, the girls went a combined 6-4-1, winning one tournament and losing in the first playoff round in the other.
On May 30-June 1, the girls were in Edmonton for a midget ‘C’/’D’ tournament.
Against older girls, the Jaguars ran the table, winning all six of their games en route to the tournament title.
“They did really good,” Burchett said. “They hit and pitched really good and fielded really good and nobody had an off game at all.”
The Jaguars took part in the tournament to have a chance to go up against a higher level of competition than they had faced in league play.
On the following weekend, the Jaguars competed in a bantam ‘A’ tournament in St. Albert, but their results were not as good.
The girls went 0-3-1 in the round robin, finishing in fourth place in their pool. In their playoff game, they played the River City Hurricanes and were defeated 12-1 in five innings.
Despite not posting any wins, Burchett said he was happy with how the girls performed considering they were a ‘B’-level team in an ‘A’ tournament.
“I was actually really happy with how they played,” he said, adding he feels the fact the girls haven’t had the chance to face faster pitching in league play held them back against the pitchers ‘A’ teams have on their rosters.
“It might have been a different result if we had been playing teams that good throughout the year.”
Next up for the Jaguars is the provincial tournament July 18-20 in Leduc.
As the only bantam ‘B’ team in the zone, the girls automatically qualified for the tournament, Burchett said.
Given the results they’ve had thus far, both at the league and tournament levels, he said the Jaguars are in good shape to do some damage.
“If the girls play as good as they can and as they did in those two tournaments, they will have a fairly good shot at winning it,” Burchett said.
