The Delta 2004A Heat girls fastpitch team nearly came home with the top prize from the prestigious Pride and Power Tournament at Softball City last weekend.
Hosted by the White Rock Renegades, the event is regarded second only to the Canada Cup when it comes to tournament status for rep teams in B.C.
Competing in the U19A Division, the Heat opened round-robin play with a 7-3 win over the Fraser Valley Fusion.
Vanessa Eagles clubbed her team-leading fourth home run of the season to support ace pitcher Kiwi Fournier’s complete-game win.
Next was an all-Delta match-up against a 2003 Heat team that features a roster loaded with college and university players.
“We look up to those girls and coaches. They’ve set the bar to what it takes to be elite in this sport,” said 2004 Heat head coach Chris Ainge.
The teams traded runs in the early going before the 2003s pulled away, including three unearned runs in the sixth.
Jessie Sewell and Eagles pitched well in a losing cause. Morgan Bowles and Juliana Parkes managed the only hits off winning pitcher Paige Scott.
The 2004s rebounded with 7-1 win over Ridge Meadows Pride.
Karley Telford led the way with three hits and an RBI, while Mika Bolli had an RBI single. Emma Kolousek ran into some tough luck hitting the ball hard twice but right at the right fielder.
The Heat closed out opening day action against another experienced squad of college players, last year’s provincial silver medalists the 2003 Surrey Storm. After a lead-off single by Telford, Kennedy Ainge cashed her in with an RBI hit to give the Heat a 1-0 lead.
It was looking like that would be enough as Fournier was cruising right along until the fifth inning where the Heat made three errors that led to the Storm taking a 2-1 advantage. That proved enough for Storm ace Carleen Murray, who shut the door the rest of the way.
The Heat’s final round robin game came against the host White Rock Renegades 2004.
The two teams traded punches before White Rock opened up a 5-3 lead. Doubles from Ainge and Eagles tied the game.
They also received singles from Clare VanSpall, Morgan Bowles, Alex Sy and Telford. That set the stage for Fournier to hit a game-winning two-run blast to left, securing third place in the pool standings.
Playoff round
Sunday night’s (May 22) playoff encounter with Victoria saw the Heat in an early 3-0 hole thanks to a trio of errors.
Taylor Bowles got the bats ignited with an RBI double in the fourth. With the 90-minute time limit closing in, the Heat rallied to tie the game in the sixth thanks to dramatic back-to-back home runs from Kennedy Ainge and Cheyenne Simicak.
The comeback was complete when Telford drove in pinch-runner Tiana Sullivan from second base in the international tiebreaker format. Fournier threw a complete game, allowing just two hits and striking out 13.
The dramatic win set the stage for a rematch with the 2003 Heat. Riding more terrific work from Fournier, the 2004s never trailed in this one, scoring four runs in the fifth and four more in the seventh to win 9-1.
Championship game heart-breaker
The championship game was another opportunity for redemption, this time against the 2003 Storm.
A Parkes’ single gave Delta a 2-0 lead until Surrey took advantage of a couple of defensive miscues to answer with three of its own.
“In years past we wouldn’t be able to recover from that but we learned a lot about ourselves this weekend, gained a lot of experience from big play moments in front of full stands with games on the line,” added coach Ainge.
A double from VanSpall scored a pair of runs to make it 4-3 Delta after five innings. However, three more errors proved to be the team’s undoing in a 6-4 defeat, ending a memorable long weekend.
“It’s a tough loss, it really is. With all due respect to the Storm as they are formidable champs and one heck of a ball team but we gave them that game with six errors,” Ainge added. “We will learn from it and be better because of it. I have great assistants in Dennis Bowles and Luc Fournier and it’s up to us to get these girls over the hump.”
