Two softball players from Westlock are coming off a great season playing for the Calahoo Erins U-16 softball team, winning gold at provincials and silver at the Alberta Summer Games.
Meadow MacDonald, 15, and Payton Shank, 15, were looking for a little more competition than Westlock could offer so joined the team from Calahoo, about 40 minutes southwest of town.
After trying out for the Alberta Summer Games Zone 5 team in the spring, coach Al Routh called MacDonald’s father and said, “We want Meadow on our team.”
Shank said she took a similar path to end up on the Calahoo team. After trying out for the Summer Games team, the coach approached her about joining the Erins for the season.
“There was lots of games and lots of tournaments and we had long two-hour practices and that was very different from Westlock,” said MacDonald.
“And we ended up winning provincials, so that was pretty cool,” said Shank, who pointed out the team also won a silver medal earlier in the year at a tournament in Stettler.
Shank plays second and rightfield and pitches every once in a while as well.
Provincials were held in Calahoo July 14-15 and the Erins went undefeated, beating out the other team from Calahoo to advance to the gold medal game against a team from Sedgewick.
“That team from Sedgewick only had one pitcher, so she was pitching the whole weekend and I think she was pretty tired because we hit off her pretty well. It was pretty close though, they had good defence,” said MacDonald, who plays third and catcher.
The Summer Games were held July 19-22 in Grande Prairie and the Zone 5 team managed a 3-1-1 record, losing only their last game to the team from Zone 4.
The team was made up of mostly Erins, but there were a few others from around the region included as well.
“It was really unique and I really liked it,” said Shank. “I really liked spending time together as a team and experiencing the whole thing together.”
For Shank the highlight was making it to the finals and playing into extra innings in the championship game.
MacDonald is just proud of her performance.
“In one game I remember I hit two doubles, a single and a triple. I haven’t hit a homer this year,” she said.
While both girls won’t be able to play on the same team next year, as it is moving into the U-19 category, there is another Calahoo team they plan on joining.
