The St. Albert Angels dominated the diamond at the Girls Prairie League Softball B division finals last weekend in Irma.
The U18B and U12B teams were victorious in their respective GPLS finals for Fastball St. Albert.
The U18B Angels went 3-1 on their way to the gold-medal championship for the second year in a row.
In the final the Angels defeated the Red Deer Rage 8-2.
“They played their best overall game of the season against a very tough opponent,” said coach Scott Yost of the team’s performance against the Rage. “Outstanding defence, great pitching and aggressive base running was the recipe for success and the gold medal win.”
The Angels started the tournament with a 5-1 decision against the host Irma Tigers, lost 14-6 to the Rage as Red Deer pulled away late for the victory and against the Unity Panthers prevailed 8-6.
Brooke Budskin led the way offensively with a .633 batting average and 11 RBIs over the weekend and against Unity was equally strong pitching and hitting.
Shelby Reiling also scored six runs in four games.
The Angels are back in Irma for the provincial playdowns July 8 to 10.
Fans of the Angels can follow team through Gamechanger.com.
The U12B Angels were the No. 1 seed in GPLS tournament but lost their opener 7-4 to the Red Deer Rage.
“The girls were very disappointed to lose the first game,” said coach Matt Edwards. “Our bats were very quiet. We only had four hits against what we thought was hittable pitching.”
The loss meant that instead of playing three games to win the championship the Angels would have to play five in total and win the next four in a row.
“However, that may have been for the best as we found our offence,” said Edwards, as the Angels banged out 18 hits against solid pitching by Maliya Pankiw and Anna Bakos of Angels 06, a U10A St. Albert team coached by James Drolet, and the result was an 18-2 victory.
“We were down 2-1 after one inning but took off from there.”
Ashtyn Berthiaume, Erica Ross and Kiara Charchuk collected three hits apiece and scored a combined 10 runs.
Brooklyn Kibermanis ended the game by clubbing a grand slam.
Sunday the Angels played three consecutive games, and backed by the pitching of Bella Pankiw, Charchuk and Ross, the scores were 15-6 over the Unity Panthers, 15-3 over the Rage and 10-4 over the Beaumont Blitz in the final.
“The girls put together great pitching, hitting and defence for three straight games against tough competition,” Edwards said.
In the final the Angels overcame a 3-1 deficit going into the fifth inning. The turning point was when Brielle Lajoie walked, stole second and third and scored on Kaylee Sarapuk’s single. Sarapuk would later swipe second and advance to third on a groundout to the right side by MacKenzie Dyck before scoring with a head-first slide on a passed ball.
“We took control of the game from there,” Edwards said.
Lajoie, the leadoff hitter, was the team’s catalyst in the final by going 2-for-2 with two singles, two walks and three runs scored.
The Angels improved to 12-2-1 overall after going 8-1-1 in league play.
“Our team has played well in the GPLS weekends but were pretty inconsistent with our hitting,” Edwards said. ‘Our pitching and defence has been a consistent strength.”
This weekend the Angels are competing in the Edmonton Youth Softball Association finals.
The U12B provincials are July 8 to 10 in Calahoo.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com for the U12B and U18B team pictures.
Meanwhile, Angels 06 closed out the tournament at 2-2, with wins of 18-3 and 14-5 against Lloydminster.
FASTBALLS: Fastball St. Albert is hosting the U16A Western Canadian Softball Championships, July 29 to Aug. 1 at Meadowview Diamonds. Organizers are seeking volunteers to help with scorekeeping. For more information, contact [email protected] or Sarah at 780-239-5517.
