The West Fraser Timber Park grounds was filled with RVs, colourful uniforms, parents in folding chairs and the sounds of call and response songs.
Quesnel hosted a Girl’s softball tournament on the weekend (June 1-2) with 15 teams from in-town and Prince George taking part.
Action took place from 9 a.m. on Saturday morning to 5 p.m. on Sunday evening and the conditions were perfect.
The local squads won the U12 and U14 divisions and placed second in the U16/19 one.
Jill Chandler who coached the U12 squad that won their division is bursting with pride.
“We were the only team to win all four games,” she points out. “We started really slow [in a couple matches], but we always came back and won it. There were some nailbiters.”
In their match-up versus the Prince George lime team, she says it came down to the nitty gritty and her team needed to score nine runs in the last inning in order to win by two.
“The girls came together at the end and they fought hard,” she says. “They hit well and base ran perfectly. At the beginning of the game we were down and mopey but we came back. It was quite a miracle.”
Her team will remember the tournament for quite some time, Chandler says.
“They loved it. They were so proud of themselves. Especially considering we only have a six week open window to play. We came together quickly and won the whole thing without losing a single game. They were so thrilled.
“I almost cried I was so excited.”
The winners of the U14 division had a blast too.
“Our first game with the Quesnel green team, who we always have good battles with, was probably the best game for us,” says head coach Ryan McTavish.
“But Prince George wasn’t much competition for us at all. Our piching is pretty high calibre compared to theirs.”
He says the U14 teams from up north have pulled most of their B-level players out of the C League, so the teams left are a little short handed talent-wise.
“It felt like we were playing the U12s,” McTavish says. “But it’s not their fault if all their best players are gone and ours aren’t, right?”
RESULTS:
U12
U12s had six teams – Three from Quesnel and three from PG. All three Quesnel teams made playoffs.
1st - Quesnel River Pulp (Coach Jill Chandler)
2nd – Cariboo Pulp (Coach Krystle Beaudry)
3rd – Prince George Bears (Coach Suzanne Dallman)
U14
U14s had five teams total - Three Quesnel teams and two Prince George teams. All three Quesnel teams played in medal games, and all three teams won medals.
1st – Quesnel Toyota (Coach Ryan McTavish)
2nd – Design Flooring (Coach Aiyanna Basi)
3rd – Bo Peep (Coach Jordyn Miller)
U16/19
U16/19 only had four teams in the tournament – Two from Quesnel and two from PG. Quesnel Summit Electric played in the finals versus the PG Purple Turtles and ended up in 2nd.
1st – PG Purple Turtles (Coach Dave Cake)
2nd – Quesnel Summit Electric (Coach Linda Currie)
3rd – Quesnel Tireland (Coach Andrew Generous)
READ MORE: Quesnel Girl’s Softball squads win two gold medals in Vernon
sports@quesnelobserver.com
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