Batter up at westerns

The U16A Western Canadian Softball Championships swing into action this weekend at Meadowview Diamonds.

Fastball St. Albert is hosting the girls' and boys' tournament, consisting of 50 games, starting 9 a.m. Friday and ending with Monday's finals at 1 p.m.

"You're going to see the top level of girls softball at the U16 level. These are some of the top teams in Western Canada. The girls are pitching upwards of 55 miles an hour. It's pretty intense and competitive ball," said Mark Maxwell, coach of the host St. Albert Angels in the nine-team girls' draw.

"I think most people that haven't really followed fastball will be surprised how exciting it is. There is a lot of action going on. I find with baseball it's a lot of just pitching and catching, or the battery they call it, but in fastball there is a lot more activity and a lot more plays that need to be made," added Rick Reiter, coach of the host St. Albert Falcons, the Alberta reps in the six-team boys' draw.

The opening ceremonies are slated for 11 a.m. Friday after the opening games for the girls and boys.

Gate fee is $25 per person for the weekend or $10 per person for the day and there is free admission for players, coaching staff and children under 12.

Visit www.fastballstalbert.ca for the schedules.

Last year Softball Alberta received two bids for westerns and members of the board voted in favor of Fastball St. Albert.

Westerns are the highest profile event Fastball St. Albert has ever hosted.

"The support from the association has just been fabulous and the families and the players have all just rallied around this as a really meaningful thing for them to work towards," Maxwell said.

Medal hopefuls

The Angels dedicated their season towards a winning performance at westerns.

"Right from the start of the year we set some objectives to work towards. Achieving the best result we can at westerns and obviously medalling would be a large objective for us," Maxwell said. Of the roster 11 players, the majority were born in 2000 have played together for several years, plus one pickup for westerns.

At provincials, the Edmonton Youth Softball Association champions missed out on qualifying for the medal round on runs for and against.

"We were literally a couple of runs away from moving into the medal round, which those top four teams actually go to nationals," Maxwell said. "We had a great provincials. We had great games against some of the top teams. We beat one of the top teams and came really close against another."

Last week the Angels competed at the Canadian Open Fastpitch International in Surrey and according to the tournament website they finished 2-6 and both wins were against the Edmonton River City Hornets, 15-4 and 5-1. The Hornets and Edmonton Wild Warriors are the Alberta reps at westerns.

"It was a great experience for the girls and a great way to kind of polish our skills for coming into westerns," Maxwell said of the Canadian Open that included games against teams from Arizona and Washington. "With this high calibre of ball that we just went through last week, it was a week long tournament, we're firing on all cylinders now."

Maxwell is impressed by the team's work ethic.

"The amount of work these girls are putting in should be recognized. It's been tremendous. The days are getting hotter and we haven't really played this long in the season before. The effort at practice and the effort in games is just outstanding and that obviously gives you the results you need," he said. "Our play in the outfield has been something that is absolutely tremendous this year as well. We do not let balls hit the ground and we do not let balls get by us and that's huge. They're game savers.

"Offensively, we have pretty strong bats. When we focus we can certainly hit the ball very, very well too."

In the boys' draw, the Falcons are a U14 team that picked up three U16 players – two from Calahoo and one from Irma – for westerns.

"When the league called and asked if we would be able to field a host team on the boys' side because the Angels were the girls' host, my first thought was we don't want to be doormats, we've got to be competitive so we needed help finding some pitchers throughout Alberta and the president of (Fastball St. Albert), Michael Kirk, stepped up and was able to help us out," Reiter said.

"In U14 at the fastball level for boys there is not a lot of enrollment and not a lot of teams. In U12 there was a lot but we moved up to U14 this year and we actually played in a U16 boys' and girls' league. We were playing up a division all year and competitive so that's why we weren't so hesitant when we were asked. We've been doing this all year, although Western Canadians is going to bring some very good players here."

The 10-player lineup for westerns set a goal at Sunday's practice to make the medal round.

"Out of the six teams we would have to finish top four to get into a medal game," Reiter said. "We had a very spirited practice. The boys were pretty keen. They do understand that they are only 14 playing U16 but our pickups are 16 years old so I think we'll be competitive but we will have some teams that we will be in tough against for sure."

FASTBALLS: The guest speaker at Saturday's tournament banquet is Mackenzie Siddall of Windsor, Ont. The pitcher for the UBC Thunderbirds' softball team was born without a right hand.

The banquet starts at 7 p.m. at the St. Albert Curling Club.

Mackenzie's dad, Joe, is a former catcher with the Detroit Tigers and provides commentary on the Toronto Blue Jays' radio broadcasts.

In February of 2014, Mackenzie's brother and avid athlete, Kevin, lost his battle with non-Hodgkin lymphoma at the age of 14. He underwent six protocols of chemotherapy and at least 50 blood transfusions before becoming unresponsive in late January.

The Windsor Stars Baseball Club hosts an invitational bantam baseball tournament in Kevin's memory.