The Moose Jaw U13 B Ice might not have taken the field together in a game this season heading into the Sharon Knott tournament in Regina, but that made little difference for the local crew in the final result.
The Ice showed a combination of utter dominance and dogged resilience to come away with the gold medal at the 15-team event during the May 27 weekend.
Moose Jaw opened the tournament with the maximum five runs in both their round-robin games, going on to commanding wins over the Butte Heat and Regina Royals Raiders.
That was more than enough to put the local squad into the semifinal against the Indian Head Angels. After a back-and-forth battle, the Ice would score four in the top of the final inning before holding the Angels scoreless to advance to the gold medal game.
There, it was another test right off the bat against the Vibank Steelers. A quick five-run inning for Vibank put Moose Jaw on the back foot, but an inning later the Ice offence came alive. A five-spot of their own got the Ice back into contention and they’d follow up with 10 runs the next two frames to secure the championship title.
The Ice will look to build on that success this weekend during their second tournament of the season in Saskatoon.
