Westlock’s U14 softball team’s strong performance wasn’t enough; they unfortunately came home empty-handed and winless from the provincial ‘C’ championship tournament in Calahoo last weekend.
Coach Leanne Huppertz said despite their 0-4 record, she saw continuous improvement and outstanding effort out on the field.
“As the weekend went on they got better and better. They were good contenders; they didn’t get blown out of the water at all,” she said.
“I’m really proud of how they played all season.”
Friday began with a 19-9 loss to the Calgary Nose Creek Novas and a 13-8 loss to the Clive Redsox, but that didn’t dissuade the girls from putting for their best effort on Saturday.
In fact, in both games on Saturday the Westlock Wild came very close to winning.
“The last two games we played were the closest,” Huppertz said. “We controlled the games for most of them.”
Saturday morning, the girls came out to an early 2-0 lead against Edmonton Millhurst, a lead they held on to until late in the game when their opponents scored five runs in one inning to come up with an 8-3 win.
In the afternoon against the Elkford Thunder, the Wild kept their opponents on their toes.
“The last game we played against Elkford, they were undefeated,” Huppertz said. “When we played them we controlled the game right up to the last inning. It was back-and-forth, then they stepped ahead.”
Although that game ended in a 16-14 loss, Huppertz emphasized the girls left nothing out there on the field over the weekend, and did a great job of holding their own at provincials.
“We played really well,” she said. “Some had never been to provincials before and some hadn’t been since they were Squirts.”
