Last weekend the Lac La Biche U-19 Girls Fastball team, the Dodgers, traveled to Elk Point to compete in the provincials tournament. The dodgers were the youngest team in the tournament but they certainly had the most fight.
The Dodgers entered the provincials on a rough start, losing their first two games of the weekend competition. "Each game was only lost by one run, but it doesn't matter for standings" said coach Jaosn Houle. "Only the top four teams in the whole entire tournament advance to playoffs."
After their rough start the pressure was on. "We had to win our next two on Saturday to even give us a chance for other games" said Houle. "The girls stepped up and found their game"
The Dodgers won their first saturday game by a single run, beating the Lakeland Layouts 9-8. Their next game was a more decisive victory; a 20-8 win over Sherwood Park. "The girls started to hit like they did all year" said Houle. After their two victories, the Dodgers were forced into a tie-breaking game against a Lacombe team they had lost to prior in the tournament. They ended up beating the team in a decisive 17-3 win to advance to the semi finals.
Houle mentions a talk the coaches gave the Dodgers after their tough first day. "We just reminded them just to relax and have fun. It's just like, the game of baseball is an exciting and intense game at the same time. It's a fun game to play. So I think they just kind of reset by night."
In the semi-finals the challenges grew, but the dodgers never backed down. Their semi-finals opponent was undeafated for the entire tournament until they met the dodgers. The Dodgers beat their undeafted Valleyview opponents 14-3 handing them their first and worst loss of the tournament and advancing the Dodgers to the gold medal game against the Lakeland Layouts.
The Dodgers have been in a gold medal situation before, and this time came ready to play. With some of the girls dealing with injuries, the girls were able to hold a 3 run lead going into the seventh inning. "We just needed to get three outs to win the gold medal," said Houle. "Unfortunately, just a couple couple of bad bounces and a couple of mistakes cost us the gold medal." The Dodgers ended up losing the game 8-7.
Despite the loss, Houle is still proud of what they accomplished. "All in all, we're extremely proud of what they did all weekend, they battled back and they never said quit." he said.
"It was fun to be around. It was just their character" said Houle. "They showed that that they wanted it, they knew that they had the talent to do it. All it took was a change of mental state, a change of attitude"
The team is going to lose two of it's players unfortunately. "We would like to wish Kallee Cardinal and Brenna Cey best wishes in their future." said Houle.
Houle is excited for next year, with some players already talking about winter workouts.
"I think we're going to be even stronger with the same group of girls pretty much. We're looking at bigger better things for next year."
