Island Impact fielding younger team
Team P.E.I. not lacking experience
The Island Impact will make their second trip to O’Leary in as many years to compete for the national senior women’s fastpitch championship. Play starts Wednesday. “Everyone is a good ballplayer,” said Impact playercoach Jody Kinney. “The fielding is the easy part.
“If we get our bats going we should be good to go. As of right now, we have pretty good bats.”
Island Impact was the host team of the 2015 Canadian “Every girl there, I think, has been to a national before. So, experience-wise, I think we’re OK that way. Confidence will probably be a key thing.” championship, but that honour shifts to the Scotiabank Reds this year. The Impact is entered in the seven-team championship as Team P.E.I.
Teams play a single roundrobin format from Wednesday to Friday – two games per day per team – leading into the playoffs on Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s going to be a good time,” said Kinney, who added it’s a much younger Impact team in 2016.
Last year, the team’s average age was high 20s, but it’s down to early 20s this year as several regulars were unavailable.
The biggest challenge, though, could be the Impact’s amount of playing time leading into this year’s nationals. They’ve only played two games Priscilla Curran is the only pitcher back from last year’s Island Impact team. The P.E.I. representative will begin play in the national senior women’s fastpitch championship at Ellis Field in O’Leary Wednesday at noon. Pitcher Priscilla Curran; catchers Heather Drake and Tasha MacDonald; Genna Phelan as utility; Laura Dugay, who has moved to shortstop from second base, and Jody Kinney at first base. Pitchers Kate Cashin, Maggie MacIsaac and Jordon Havenga; Tori Kinney alternating between first and third bases, Kelley Lea at third base; middle infielder Mackenzie Pinett, and outfielders Bailey Doucette, Stacy Montgomery and Ellen Rice. together this year.
“Every girl there, I think, has been to a national before. So, experience-wise, I think we’re OK that way,” said Kinney. “Confidence will probably be a key thing.
“We’re trying to work on that, get that confidence up. If we have that up, I think we will be OK. Our bats are looking pretty good.”
The Impact finished last year’s tournament with a 1-3 (won-lost) record, and Kinney believes they can do as well or better this time.
“We’ll do as good as last year,” she said. “We’ve lost some big players, but we’ve got some young ones in who can kind of fill the role.” Final preparations are being made for the national senior women’s fastpitch championship, which begins at Ellis Field in O’Leary on Wednesday. It’s going to be a busy week for Sarah Woodside, who’ll carry double duty as the catcher of the host Scotiabank Reds and a member of the organizing committee. The Island Impact is representing P.E.I. B2