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Moose Jaw Ice excited for run at Softball Canada U17 girls national championship

Unser, Miller combine for no-hitter in 9-0 win over P.E.I after 7-0 loss to Morgan Reimer and Fraser Valley, B.C. in opener

The Moose Jaw Ice are officially in action at the Softball Canada U17 national girls fastball championship.

The Ice split their first two games, falling 7-0 to B.C. in their opener before rolling to a 9-0 win in their second game Wednesday against Prince Edward Island.

Moose Jaw made sure they were prepared for the event with a pair of exhibition games in the lead-up to the tournament on Saturday afternoon, with the Ice taking a 4-3 win over the Lumsden Cubs, who are also competing at nationals this week, and a 9-8 win against the Moose Jaw Heat from the ladies fastball league.

The two contests capped nearly three weeks of waiting and preparation for nationals, from their provincial championship final win over Lumsden back on Aug. 24 to their opening game on Wednesday morning.

“It’s been an absolute whirlwind, the girls are chomping at the bit to get playing and get going,” head coach Paul Litzenberger said Saturday afternoon. “To go from playing 50 games in three months to finally getting some exhibition games just before we go, it’s been a lot of practices in the meantime. The girls and the parents have been really focussing on fundraising, and it’s just been overwhelming, the support we’ve received has been amazing.”

That portion of the whole project was a bit of a concern at the start, but it didn’t take long for Moose Jaw to respond. In the end, the Ice far exceeded their fundraising expectations, bringing in tens of thousands of dollars for the trip.

“I have to give a big thank you to our parents' group, they did so much work and did such a great job on all this,” Litzenberger said. “There is so much support, Moose Jaw Minor Ball supported us and Sask Softball Sask was a huge help, then our board, [president] Ryan Ward and so many people who were involved who helped us with funding.

“I can’t thank them enough, that was one of the worries initially, if we win this thing, what are we going to do? But Stacey [Clarke] and Carime [Molde], they stepped up right away and said ‘we got this’. And right away, the families were involved as well, and it was such a great overall contribution, it’s just incredible to see the support.”

With financial concerns out of the way, focus turned to the competition itself. Much of the Ice success will revolve around how their pitching matches up at that level, with Team Saskatchewan hurler Katie Newberry and fellow top-flight pitcher Ava Unser expected to see the lion’s share of the work.

“I’m super excited,” Unser said before pitching four shutout innings against Lumsden Saturday. “Our team has done really well all year and we have really good D, so I feel really strong pitching with them having my back, and I’m excited to get on the mound in a game again.”

Facing the best-of-the-best from across the country wasn’t much of a concern for Unser, with the prime focus on her work in the pitching circle.

“It’s going to be a lot different compared to the teams we see all year, there are going to be a lot of strong hitters,” she said. “So I’ll just have to go with what’s working and it’ll be good to test myself against those kinds of hitters.”

Saskatchewan ran into a buzzsaw right off the bat in the form of Fraser Valley, B.C.’s Morgan Reimer. The 16-year-old national team veteran came as advertised, holding the Ice to a single hit and three baserunners while striking out seven. Makena Simmons -- who with Newberry joined up with the team from Niagara after their appearance in the Canada Summer Games -- had Moose Jaw’s lone hit.

Newberry allowed seven runs, three earned, on six hits while striking out three in 4 ⅓ innings, Unser got the final two B.C. outs and recorded a strikeout.

Things were far, far different in their second game Wednesday, 

Unser and Brooklyn Miller combined to pitch a no-hitter against the P.E.I. Whitecaps, with Unser going four innings and striking out five while walking a pair. Miller tossed the final inning and had a strikeout.

It certainly didn’t hurt to have all sorts of offensive support, as Moose Jaw burst out of the gates with four runs in the first inning, tacked on another two in the second and never looked back on their way to their 9-0 win.

Aubrey Clarke and Jasmine Kohl were both 2-for-4 with a double, run scored and two RBI, while Macy Litzenberger was 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI. Haily Molde was 2-for-3, Faith Kwasnicki scored a pair of runs. 

Moose Jaw continues their round robin at the 24-team tournament on Thursday against Ontario’s LaSalle Athletics before facing the Whitby, Ont. Eagles Aquanno and host Quebec Rak on Friday.

You can follow along with all the results by clicking right here.

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