MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- With the way things are going for the Moose Jaw Ice girls' fastball teams this spring, there could be a host of provincial championships in the works in a few weeks time.
One only has to look at how things went at the recent Shaye Amundson Memorial Tournament in Prince Albert for an idea of why that might be.
Both the U13 A and U15 A Ice brought home championships from the prestigious tournament, which annually brings together some of the top teams in the province for a mid-season showdown.
The U11 A Ice also had a solid weekend, reaching the gold medal game before settling for silver.
The Ice had little difficulty in the U15 A round robin, opening with a 7-0 win over the Meadow Lake Sox before downing the Saskatoon Lasers 5-0 and taking a 9-6 win over the Lloydminster Liners.
That sent the Ice into the semifinal where they’d take an 11-4 win over the Prince Albert Aces, setting up a gold medal match against the Twin City Angels. There, Moose Jaw would build 6-1 lead through five innings before going on to a 7-4 victory.
Tara Bell was 3-for-3 with two runs scored in the final, Taryn Friesen was 3-for-4 and also scored two runs. Avery Garthus and Friesen combined on the mound to earn the win.
The U15 A Ice are right back at it this weekend at a tournament in Brandon, where they won their opener 8-0 over the Manitoba Angels.
The U13 A Ice put on an offensive show of their own through the round robin, defeating the Melfort Spirit 14-5, rolling past the Saskatoon Laser 8-0 and hammering out a 20-3 win over the Regina Lazers to close out the preliminary round.
The semifinal saw the Ice take a 15-8 win over the Prince Albert Aces before they ran into their closest game of the weekend in the gold medal contest, edging the Humboldt Thunder 4-3.
Moose Jaw trailed 3-2 heading into the bottom of the fifth in that contest but would get a pair of runs and hold on for the one-run win. Taya Babich was 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBI to lead the offence. Riley Ziffle and Lily Kwasnicki combined for a no-hitter while striking out 13 and walking eight.
The U11 A Ice ran into one team they couldn’t get past, but still managed to reach the title game in the ‘A’ division.
The Ice defeated the Saskatoon Raider Rush 3-0 and Maidstone Lakers 12-2 before dropping a 9-3 decision to the Prince Albert Aces. With the tournament hosts and Ice finishing one-two in their pool, they’d rematch for gold, with the Aces taking a 5-0 win.
