Forget about camping or going to the beach. Best friends Lexie Brenneis and Paige Harbord hung out together on Team B.C. this summer winning a national championship.

The Ladner teens culminated a memorable month long journey on Sunday night in Richmond as B.C. captured the Canadian Bantam Girls Baseball Championships with a 5-4 win over Ontario. The result completed an unbeaten run for the host province and marked the second time in three years it has finished on top of the podium.

At 14, Brenneis and Harbord were the youngest girls on the team and still have two more years of eligibility at this level. They are already thinking about repeating in 2011 when the tournament is held in Nova Scotia.

"We have been best friends for a long time and to be on this team has been an amazing experience," smiled Brenneis. "When we first started practicing as a team, we didn't know anybody's name and we were really kind of nervous. Then we end up right here (winning a championship). All these girls are just amazing."

Brenneis and Harbord have grown up playing among boys in the Ladner Minor Baseball Association. This season, they were teammates in the LMBA's Bantam House League.

Harbord won silver two years ago as a member of Team B.C. at the Canadian Pee Wee Girls Championships. Brenneis was playing for the Ladner all-star program at the time.

They both attended Team B.C. tryouts last month and earned spots on the 14-player roster. Nothing against their Ladner teammates, but the intensity and caliber of play at the Nationals was unmatched.

"Everyone was just way more focused and together as a team," said Harbord. "It was definitely a better experience than playing boys house ball."

Harbord also plays rep fastpitch with the Invaders program and will continue to do both in the future. Brenneis has played nothing but baseball.

"I'm thinking about switching but I haven't made up my mind," she said. "I am very set on baseball. It's basically my entire life."

Based on her role with Team B.C., there will be plenty of more highlights too.

Despite her age and lack of experience at the national level, Brenneis proved to be one of B.C.'s workhorses.

She pitched in a 7-2 semi-final win over Quebec, then got the start against Ontario, working nearly three innings before departing when her pitch count for the day (95) had reached the maximum.

She also saw regular duty in right field and hit the ball hard in each of her four plate appearances. She singled in the seventh that led to a pair of valuable insurance runs. She was also robbed of another hit on a spectacular line drive catch by Ontario shortstop Breanne Wilson-Bennett, that led to defensive player of the game honours.

Harbord also saw some time in the championship game, coming off the bench in the late going as a pinch runner.

The girls will bask in their glory over the next few days before heading their separate ways. Brenneis will be starting Grade 9 at Delta secondary school next week and Harbord is off to Little Flower Academy in Vancouver.

"We're still going to be seeing lots of each other," promised Brenneis.

And there's always next summer helping B.C. win gold again.