Playing tired works for Lakers

Ontario team stitches together four must-win playoff games to claim Eastern Canadian title

A group of ballplayers from Kawartha Lakes, Ont., forgot all about their tiredness early Sunday evening.

That’s because they were celebrating their Eastern Canadian under-16 girls fastpitch championship win on Ellis Field.

The Lakers downed the Lac St.-Louis Lions from Quebec 9-4 in the championship final for their fourth victory of the day.

“We got up this morning, 5:30, started playing at nine (o’clock) and we knew we had to win all four games, and we went back-to-back-to-backto-back to win this,” exclaimed coach Devon Debnam. “This team just came together this year, and they’re probably the best girls I’ve ever coached in all my career of coaching. “Phenomenal.

“They come to play every day and they hit the ball like there is no tomorrow.”

They got the ball moving in the second inning of the championship game, pushing four runs across the plate and they didn’t look back.

They were up 6-0 after 2 ½ innings, before Quebec scored their four runs in the bottom of the third.

Claire Dempsey, who was the round-robin’s top batter (.571), finished off the scoring in the top of the seventh as her hard triple drove home two runs.

“It was a long day,” said playoff MVP Jordyn Hartley, who pitched three wins on Championship Sunday.

Hartley got the semifinal win in relief, and pitched a complete game in the final. “There was a lot of pressure in the second-last game, but the last game I was just confident with everybody,” she said. The semifinal was a nailbiter to the end, with the Mississauga North Tigers rallying to tie the game 8-8 in the sixth inning, before the Lakers pulled out an 11-9 win with

three runs in the eighth inning – two of them on a Hannah Warren homer.

The Lakers got their day started with an 8-1 win over the Cole Harbour Comets in six innings.

They followed that up with an 11-1 win over P.E.I. West in five innings, before running up against the Tigers in the semifinal.

P.E.I. West had started the day off with a 13-11 win over P.E.I. East.

ERIC MCCARTHY/JOURNAL PIONEER Kawartha Lakers first baseman Claire Dempsey finishes off a double-play in the sixth inning of Sunday’s championship final against the Lac St-Louis Lions. The Lakers won four games in a row Sunday to take the Eastern Canadian under-16 girls fastpitch...