An unlikely story unfolded in Nanaimo last weekend when the 1994 South Delta Invaders girls fastpitch team became provincial champions at the Midget B level.
It was no easy feat for a group of Grade 11 girls that was the youngest team at the provincial championships.
The story actually started last month when the team battled hard to earn a berth to the playdowns after losing its first game in a double knockout tournament. Three straight wins allowed the Invaders to claim the second provincial berth.
The provincial championships started much the same way when they fell 6-1 to the Port Coquitlam Ravens in the first game, but came back to beat the host Nanaimo Diamonds 93 12-6 thanks, in part, to a Delanie Chang home run.
A five-run outburst in the top of the seventh gave the Invaders a win over the South Delta Invaders 93 in the third game before they dropped a close one to the Nanaimo Diamonds 92 to close out the round robin portion.
Their 2-2 record got them the eighth and final spot in the double knockout playoff bracket and a date with the top seed Richmond Islanders 92.
A five-hit, two-out rally in the seventh inning sparked by Lauren Walton scored three to tie the game 7-7, setting the stage for eighth inning heroics by Alysia McFarland and Jessie Priestlay to secure the victory.
The win set up a rematch with the 1993 Invaders, but this one didn't go as well as the first as the younger side was on the wrong end of a 12-7 score, falling to the "B" bracket of the tournament where one loss will send you home.
They avoided elimination with a convincing 11-4 win over the extremely tough Langley Xtreme thanks to the strong pitching of Jodie Westerhof and a 5-for-5 performance by Chang, then followed that up by besting the third-year Nanaimo Diamonds in a rematch of their final round robin game.
With the 1993 South Delta Invaders waiting in the wings to see who prevailed in the game between the 1993 White Rock Thunder and the younger Invaders team, tensions were high. After giving up four runs in the first inning, the Invaders punched their ticket to the final with a 7-6 win.
The final game was one for the record books with two teams from the same association facing each other for gold. The younger team fell behind early, but a four-run second inning propelled it to a 6-2 victory and a provincial championship.
Coaches Terry Westerhof and Wayne Ellis are credited with keeping the team together for seven years and teaching them how to pull together as a team.
