Momentum.
The Penticton Ice Girls under-16B rep team hopes to keep that going heading into the Softball B.C. Provincials championships this weekend in Nanaimo.
The Ice Girls are at Oceanside after competing in the Canada Cup International Softball Championship in Surrey last weekend. While at the Canada Cup, the Ice Girls capped the tournament with a pair of wins, 11-4 over the Central Vancouver Island Rage and wrapped with a 10-3 win over the Nanaimo Diamonds.
“Our last two games we played extremely well. We hit the ball well,” he said.
Coach Jeff Korven praised the efforts of Peachland’s Tianna Elliott for her strong defensive play at third. He said she was “just an all-star all weekend.” Penticton’s Tallon Stephenson led the team with a .546 batting average.
“(She) Just was amazing. She was good defensively, too,” said Korven. “Offensively, she was just a stud.”
The Ice Girls went 1-4 in round robin play, but Korven said their finish of 13th among 18 didn’t give a true picture of their play.
“We started off extremely well,” said Korven, as they defeated the Fleetwood Force, 12-5.
In their second game, they lost 6-5 to the Surrey Storm, who Korven said was probably one of the best teams in the tournament. The Ice Girls led 5-1 in the sixth inning, then made four costly errors and lost in extra innings. Korven said that loss was deflating for the team.
The Ice Girls were bumped to the B pool, where they received a bye for the first game.
Heading into provincials Korven picked up three players since they have nine. If they run into an injury they would be finished. The Ice Girls added Port Coquitlam’s Shaneika Hollingworth, who played with them in Canada Cup and was strong. They also welcome Trail’s Tessy Brandt and Caley Leslie from Prince George.
The Ice Girls roster features players from Penticton (Stephenson, Danika Bergen and Brooke Hall-Eckes), Summerland (Ryan Taylor, Halle McKinnon and Emilia Chick), Peachland (Kalya Devlin, Elliott), Kelowna (Jaden Allen and Payton Joyce) and from Lake Country, Athena MacLeod.
