NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN - Maddy Ziegenhagel celebrates with Medicine Hat Thunder teammate Brooke Watts (18) after scoring a run in her team's Softball Alberta Championship under-10 game against the Red Deer Rage on Friday at the Family Leisure Centre.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
The Medicine Hat Thunder were all smiles on Friday afternoon at the Family Leisure Centre.
After opening the Softball Alberta Championships with a 17-15 win over the Calgary Ravens, the under-10 squad faltered in a 20-7 loss to the Red Deer Rage – but it didn’t dampen their spirits.
“We did pretty good,” said Thunder pitcher Kapri Coston, who earned player of the game for her team against Red Deer. “I really like my team and it’s really fun to play on it.”
The Thunder ran into a couple of hot arms under the blazing sun during their second game of the day, which head coach Jason Amundson says got them off on the wrong foot.
“That’s what killed us today,” he said “The pitching scared them a little bit and they weren’t used to seeing these girls from Red Deer. (The Rage) played in the U12 division and they said not many girls in the U12 hit off them this year.”
Coston agreed the Rage’s pitching proved too much to handle early, but they still managed to learn a few things in the loss.
“I learned to watch the ball more and stand back in the batter’s box,” she said. “The pitching was very fast so it was kind of crazy in there. We kind of had to just stand there for a bit and see what were balls and what were strikes.”
After going down in order to open the game, the Thunder worked their way onto the board in the third – using plate discipline and gutsy base running to force a maximum five-run frame before tacking on another two runs down the stretch.
“In the third inning we got our five so I thought we were coming back, but then between the heat and the pitching, it just got us,” said Amundson, adding his players haven’t let the result bring them down. “They’re a great group of girls. They have fun all the time.”
Amundson says their opening victory featured a similar trend, as the Thunder fell into a 5-2 hole floowing the first, but managed to eke out the victory after shutting down the Ravens in the third.
“It kind of looked like – when they were getting fives and we were getting fives – that those first two might kill us, but we shut them down in the third and that was it,” said Amundson. “We came out and shut them down and the rest was all fives.”
The Thunder return to the Family Leisure Centre diamonds Saturday for games at 9:15 a.m. against the St. Albert Angels and 1:15 p.m. against the Lloydminster Liners.
Medicine Hat’s under-12 D squad kicked off their tournament at 2-0 over at the Moose Ball Complex. After opening the day with a 17-11 win over the Airdrie Angels, the Thunder rallied to a 17-2 blowout over the Beaumont Blitz.
The under-12 D Thunder will look to keep the perfect streak alive Saturday when they face Calgary’s West Valley Wolves at 9:15 a.m. and the Coronation Steelers at 3:30.
Medicine Hat’s under-14 D Thunder opened at 1-1, bouncing back from a 13-6 loss to Didsbury and taking a 19-4 win from Valleyview’s Brad Saville Roughnecks at the Moose Ball Complex.
The under-14 D Thunder are back in action Saturday against the Calgary Velocity at 9 a.m. and the Fort Saskatchewan Sliders at 3 p.m.
Championship play in all three age groups is set to take place Sunday, with the top two teams from each pool advancing to a semifinal – at 10 a.m. for under-10 and under-12 D and 11 a.m. for under-14 D. The winners will face off for the under-10 and under-12 D provincial titles at 1 p.m., and the under-14 D championship at 2 p.m.
