Skip to content

U12 Ice claim gold in Moose Jaw A fastball tournament

Solid weekend for local squads as U16 Ice reach semifinals at Optimist Park
The Moose Jaw U12 Ice knew they had the potential to put together an impressive showing during the first ‘A’ tournament at Optimist Park in two years this past weekend, but what they came away with was beyond the pale.

The Ice would take mercy-rule wins in four of their five games --  including a 12-2 victory over the Regina Saints in the championship final -- on their way to winning the gold medal.

When you put together a weekend like that, everything has to be on track and that was the case for Moose Jaw: from pitching to defence to offence, little to nothing could go wrong for the local crew.

“That was the story of the whole weekend for us, and it just wasn’t a few kids, everyone had their turn at it,” said Ice head coach Shawn Okerstrom.

“Especially for the hitting, every game everyone was contributing... the girls really came together, they all believe in themselves and this is the result.”

The Ice opened the tournament on Friday with a 12-3 win over the Regina Royals Panthers and would allow that same number of runs through the remainder of the tournament.

That included a 12-0 win over the Regina Lazers that saw Taryn Friesen and Aurora Wingenbach combine for a no-hitter, an 11-0 win over White Butte where Avery Garthus and Avery Funke paired up for a one-hitter, and a 12-1 victory over the Prince Albert Aces in the semifinal.

It’s all as promising as can be for the future, but there’s still some work to be done.

“We’re hoping we’ll have a good showing at provincials, but we have a couple of tournaments before that and a doubleheader in Melfort we’re driving up for, so we’ll have a few tests yet,” Okerstrom said.

The U16 Ice also had a solid weekend, going unbeaten in the round robin with a 7-6 win over Spirit Softball in their opener before downing the Regina Royals 6-1. They led 1-0 late in their semifinal but would drop a 4-1 decision to the Lumsden Cubs.

The U14 Ice lost their round robin games 11-6 to the Regina Royals Rattlers, 9-5 to the Prince Albert Aces and 10-9 to the Regina Fighting Saints and didn’t make the playoffs; the U16 B Ice also took part and fell 10-0 to the Regina Saints and 13-0 to the Lumsden Cubs before getting on board offensively in an 11-2 loss to the South East Sun Devils.

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks