The Langley Xtreme 2001 rep B softball team has captured another first place medal.
On a hot Sunday, the Xtreme capped a perfect tournament by edging the host Ridge Meadows Rage 01 by a 9-7 score in the championship game of the 2015 May Madness U14 tournament in Maple Ridge.
The first game saw the Xtreme blank the Tri City Titans 02.
During the 16-0 win, Langley’s Piper French and Jacqueline Hudson teamed up to pitch a no-hitter, while French also led the offence with five RBIs, including a home run.
Kaitlyn Cowie was also a big contributor with a triple and two RBIs.
In their second game, the Xtreme continued to roll, earning a 12-3 win over the Rage 02.
Kayla Michael and Sam Cox led the scoring with a pair of runs each.
The biggest test of the weekend came in the form of the Rage 01.
With a bit of rest between games, the Xtreme came out firing and jumped out to a 5-0 lead after two innings.
Ashley Preston smacked a two-out single that plated two RBIs while Sierra Miller had a hit, RBI, and scored a run.
The Rage nearly battled all the way back, but with two out in the bottom of the fifth inning and the tying run on third, Jayna Hagen made an impressive diving catch in centre field to preserve the win as the Xtreme eked out a 7-6 victory to maintain their perfect round-robin record.
On Sunday morning, the Xtreme was back at it, facing PoCo Ravens 02.
With seven runs in the first three innings, the Xtreme 01 took control early.
Jordan Quechuck led the way with a hit and two RBIs and Kaitlyn Cowie had another strong game at the plate with a triple and double in two at bats.
The final score of 13-3 gave the Xtreme the top seed in the playoffs on the strength of their 4-0 round robin record.
Next, the Xtreme faced the Richmond Islanders 01/02 team that just came off an emotional win by beating a team from Bellingham to make it into the playoffs as the fourth seed.
The Xtreme knew they would be tested early and had to get an early jump on the Islanders if they were to advance to the finals.
Eleven runs in the first three innings allowed Xtreme 01 to put the game away early.
The Xtreme offence was led by Taryn Jenkins, who cracked a home run to left-center and brought in 3 RBIs. Nadia Hudson was one-for-two with an RBI and run scored to assist the Xtreme 01 in a 12-2 romp over the Islanders.
The win launched the Xtreme into the final, where they once again faced the Rage 01, who were coming off two hard fought wins versus the Surrey Storm in order to get in the final, so the Xtreme knew they had to come out strong and get out front early.
The Xtreme flew out of the gate, leading 7-2 after three innings highlighted by Rebecca Courneyea’s key two-out single that scored a run.
However, the Rage battled back to tie the game 7-7 heading to the bottom of the fifth inning.
With one out in the fifth inning and Jenkins on third base, Xtreme coach Rob French called for a suicide bunt to see if he could squeeze another run across the plate knowing that time was short because of the hour-and-a-half time limit.
Jordan Quechuck executed the play with perfection and the Rage defence was not expecting the play as Jenkins scored to give the Xtreme a 9-7 lead.
With the inning over and a 9-7 lead, time expired and the Xtreme 01 earned the title of champions of the May Madness tournament.
The Xtreme went undefeated, recording an impressive 6-0 record.
The Langley girls head to Kelowna from May 29 to 31 to another tournament to see if they can remain undefeated in tournament play.
The team is led by coach Rob French, assistant coach Bill Cox, and bench coach Holly French.
