The Yorkton Crush U12 girls鈥� softball team welcomed four other teams to Yorkton鈥檚 JC Beach Ball Complex this past weekend for a five-team Provincial Softball competition.
The Crush won their first game of the tournament, dropping the Melville Miss Mils 16-10 before losing the next two games to the Estevan Elite and Redvers Red Sox, meaning their final game of the round-robin against the Oxbow Angels was a must-win game.
The girls came out strong in their final round-robin game, scoring the first run of the game before adding six more while holding Oxbow to just two runs of their own, but with the bases loaded and two out in the third inning Oxbow scored five runs, all coming after a blown call at third base, to take the lead 7-6.
The Crush would tie the game in the following inning, only to have Oxbow come back to score two runs to take a 9-7 lead.
9-7 would be as close as the Crush U12 girls would get, as their record dropped to 1-3 while Oxbow picked up their first win of the tournament to move to 1-3. Unfortunately for the Yorkton girls, the identical records meant the first tie-breaker was head-to-head and due to their loss to Oxbow in the final game they were eliminated from the Provincial competition.
However despite the loss Crush U12 head coach Vaughan Fleger felt that his girls, most of which were in their first year of softball, put together a strong effort throughout the entire tournament. 鈥淭he girls came together all weekend and they fought hard,鈥� Fleger told Yorkton This Week. 鈥淭hey did everything you could ask of them and they put in a good effort. They fought, they were close games, but sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.鈥�
Fleger also said that the loss in the Crush鈥檚 final game of the tournament wasn鈥檛 enough to knock the smiles off of the girls鈥� faces, saying: 鈥淭he main thing is that the girls are having fun while playing the sport of softball, and although we lost you can tell by the smiles on their faces that they were having fun.
鈥淭hey worked hard, had fun and even the out of town girls made it to the practices all the time and that鈥檚 all you can ask of them.鈥�
For now the Crush will enjoy the offseason before the next softball campaign; a campaign that Fleger expects will be more successful on the field than 2015 was. 鈥淲e had a young team this year with half of this provincial team being first year squirts, so we are looking good for next year,鈥� mentioned Fleger, continuing, 鈥渨e鈥檙e looking forward to next year when we鈥檒l come and compete even harder.鈥�
