O, what a feeling
the Oilmen.
“Lots of determination and lots of guts,” said Garrett. “We didn’t quit and showed a lot of pride and we did what we had to do at the end of the day. It was sensational.”
The Orioles scored seven runs in the fourth inning as Steele Lewis, Ivan Payne and Mark Kucharski all drove in runs in the inning.
Hunter Platten had four hits for Alberta, singling in the first and sixth to go along with a home run in the fourth and a double in the seventh.
The Oilmen scored four runs in the seventh inning on home runs by Ted Baker and Shawn Germain along with Platten’s double.
The Orioles outhit the Oilmen 26-25 in the final.
“We’ve got some older veteran guys that of been around a long time and we have some young guys that are kind of new and blending in very well,” said Garrett. “We used everybody. We used our bench in both games a lot and everybody did a great job when they were called on.”
The Orioles were at Softball Valley when Lethbridge hosted Nationals in 2009, finishing fourth that year.
“So it was very upsetting at that time. So to come back here and get our goal this time is that much more sweet,” said Garrett, whose team consists of players from all over Ontario, but mainly London and Windsor and now has nine national titles.
The Oilmen’s roster is an across-Alberta crew, including Lethbridge’s Shaun Gilchrist, Jeff Zanolli and Jeff Weitz.
“It was hard, for sure,” said Gilchrist, who got the start on the hill for the Oilmen in the second game, allowing 14 hits and 16 runs over four innings, striking out one and walking zero. “They came in a little bit hot and played in the earlier game and came back from way down, so they were rolling. We came out a little bit flat in the first couple of games, but we battled."
It was through Zanolli that Gilchrist wound up on the Oilmen.
“I played men's league with him and then he got me on the Rockies team, which is another Alberta team,” said Gilchrist. “I played with them for a year and then he brought me onto this team. It’s nice to kind of work my way up.”
The gold eluded the local players’ grasp, but Gilchrist enjoyed the chance to play at familiar Softball Valley all week.
“It's surreal,” he said. “We get to play here every night. It would’ve been nice to bring it home here, but there’s always next year. We’ll come out stronger.”
In the women’s final, B.C. dealt with DC squad that kept it much closer than the teams’ game earlier Saturday when the Adrenaline posted a convincing 36-8 win.
“The final was exciting
because they came back,” said Adrenaline head coach Carol Edmiston. “They lost the game against us earlier that we had beat them in three innings. So we knew they were coming to get us and they did. They came out fighting and wanting to win and they had a good chance. We only had a 15-13 win, so you can imagine how much the girls were fighting to make it happen.”
In the end, the B.C. crew from Langley got it done at the plate and with some new blood in the lineup as the Adrenaline earned this year’s national title.
“It was the hitting this time for us and putting some new girls in the lineup when they were struggling to get over,” said Edmiston who was appearing in her 13th Nationals. “We walked two of their key batters that would’ve smashed some home runs on us. They ended up coming back and getting some runs, but I think we played it well.”
The Canadian title won’t be the only thing the Adrenaline bring back home.
There were a few individual accolades as well as shortstop and leadoff hitter Tina Gulbrandsen earned the tournament Most Valuable Player, while first-year player Jessie Goddard named the Top Batter in the round-robin.
“So our team won a gold and we won best batter and got the MVP. So that was pretty sweet,” said Edmiston.
Still, for a team that went 120
throughout the week, the gold medal didn’t come easy.
“That was probably the hardest game of our week, and we had a really good week,” said Gulbrandsen. “They really made us push it to the limit.”
It wasn’t a three-inning affair like the earlier game between the two teams, but B.C. crew were able to hang on.
“The girls on my team are awesome ball players,” said Gulbrandsen. “And they're really good people, on and off the field. The team we have here are the best of the best and we really put it all on the field.”
A veteran at the National stage, Edmiston tipped her hat to the four-umpire format in each game.
“You feel like everybody is watching and all the eyes are on the right calls. They did a great job,” she said. “Plus, this is a beautiful field. The environment was smoky, but that's not their fault. But this facility helps us because we come here and it’s only one (venue). We went to Quebec last year and we were out at all different parts. So here you can see the men, women and all the teams are enjoying each other, watching and supporting.”
The Ontario 2 Smash It Sports Lady Mets earned the bronze medal.
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