Westlock U-18 Wild girls are holding their heads high after finishing their season in the semifinals of Pembina/Sturgeon Baseball/Softball League year-end tournament June 22-24 in Edmonton.
Despite not collecting any hardware, the team is more than pleased with their performance.
“To say that I am proud of them is an understatement. Three of the girls had never played ball before,” said head coach Ron Chamzuk. “They were very coachable. They wanted to learn more and improve. They rallied to win but never got down when they didn’t.”
Things started slow for Wild as they to the Wellington Royals in the round robin before rebounding with a 5-3 victory over South Edmonton. That put them up against the Calahoo Erins to get into the championship round.
“Kendra Rivard, our MVP this year, couldn’t play the final tournament because of grad,” said Chamzuk. “Signy Montgomery came up to replace Kendra. She was only just 15 and was a superstar.”
The season almost ended for the Wild against Calahoo when the Erins got ahead by a few runs late in the game. However, Amy Darr capped off her first year of baseball with a home run in the sixth inning to bring home three runners in a 13-11 win to put them into the semifinals.
However, in their semifinal rematch against Wellington the team ran out of gas. Wellington went on to win the tournament.
“These girls never got down or disappointed. They were there to have fun and play some great ball,” he said. “They planned all their practices and communicated like amazing young adults”
Chamzuk said he was humbled by the opportunity to coach the team this year and thanked the community for all the support.
“We were told that if we wanted to play in the league those teams would not come to us, we had to go to them. So our parents were driving a lot. So much dedication,” he said.
“The objective to this team was to have one more year playing ball together.
“Not only did they do that, they made some awesome memories along the way.”
