The Moose Jaw Ice got off to the start they were hoping for at the Softball Canada U17 AA national championship in Saskatoon.
Ava Unser carried a shutout into the final inning and the Ice would hold on for a 4-3 victory over Central Energy, the second representative from Manitoba.
As the score would indicate, it wasn’t an easy win by any stretch, as Moose Jaw had to put together some timely hitting to get their runs on the board.
Callie Klemenz scored Moose Jaw's first run of the tournament in the third inning, drawing a one-out walk, going to second and third on wild pitches and coming in to score on a Macy Litzenberger ground out.
The Ice made it a 2-0 game the next inning, and Ashley Breikreuz did it the easy way, sending a ball over the centrefield fence for a lead-off home run.
There things remained until the top of seventh, when Litzenberger hit a two-out single and Cadence Colborn followed up one batter later with a two-run home run of her own.
Those insurance runs would prove crucial, as after managing only five baserunners off of Unser to that point, Manitoba would get things going.
Struggles in the field would be a big part of that, as Moose Jaw would commit three consecutive errors to extend the inning and allow the tying run to reach third, but Unser would get a ground ball to finish things off.
Moose Jaw had only five hits on the game, with Litzenberger picking up two of them.
Unser ended up allowing three runs on four hits, none earned, while striking out 12 and walking only one.
The Ice are back on the field later Wednesday when they take on the P.E.I. Whitecaps. Their round robin continues Thursday at 8 p.m. against the Ontario champion Whitby Eagles before they play two games on Friday against Alberta bronze medalist Calgary Kaizen Black and B.C. bronze medalist Cloverdale Fury.
The top two teams from the round robin advance to the playoff round, with the third and fourth place teams and fifth and sixth place teams playing in separate consolation rounds.
Playoffs run all day Saturday, with the gold medal game set for 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.
You can follow along with scores from throughout the week by clicking right here.
