PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHELLE CAMPBELL
The U19 Medicine Hat Thunder pose with their provincial bronze medals from their weekend championship tournament.
The Medicine Hat U19 Thunder battled adversity en route to winning bronze at the Softball Alberta ‘B’ Provincial Championships this weekend.
An early injury put the team at nine players for a majority of the tournament, where they were in second place after round-robin play.
The Thunder opened on Friday with a pair of games – a 12-7 win over Bonnyville and a 5-2 loss to Elnora. Mia Kelly was named MVP of the first game and Nova Van Soest received the honours in the second contest after a solo home run.
Saturday the Thunder beat the Blackfalds Extreme 11-6 with a complete game on the mound from Kelly. Van Soest hit her second home run of the weekend in the win.
In their second contest, the Thunder beat the Irma Tigers 4-0 on the back of a complete-game shut-out from Kadence Pavely. Andie Suhai had a two-RBI single, and Hailey Hudson scored from second base in the win.
On Sunday the Thunder captured the bronze medal with contributions from the whole team, including retiring players Nyah Bohnet, Josie Clark, Presley Gainer, Kate Messom, Kelly and Van Soest.
