Several softball players from Clearwater helped the Zone 2 (Thompson-Okanagan) boys team place second at the BC Summer Games the July 20 – 22 weekend in Surrey.
They were squeezed out for first place by much the same team as had cost them the provincial Peewee championship in Clearwater the weekend before.
On Thursday, July 19, the Zone 2 BC Summer Games team boarded the charter bus at 6:15 am in Kamloops. The team consisted of nine Clearwater boys plus four Merritt boys, three Barriere boys and four coaches. The coaches were Cheryl Flundra, Steven Flundra and Kaylen Flundra from Kamloops, and Melody Romeo from Clearwater.
On Friday the team had its first game at 9 a.m. facing the Fraser Valley Zone 3A team. After a strong start, with Zone 2 ahead 8 – 1, the game was called due to rain. With the rain not stopping all the games for the Friday were cancelled. Teams were told that the round robin would consist of only two games.
On Saturday Zone 2 faced Zone 8 (Cariboo-Northeast). Zone 8 took the win with a score of 13 – 6. The next game was against Zone 6 (Vancouver Island). Zone 2 won that game in a mercy call of 8 – 1.
The finals were decided on wins/loses, run for /against and then bases touched. Zone 2 made it into the finals in fourth position, with it coming down to bases touched.
The first game of the semi-finals was Saturday night against the first place team, Zone 8 (Cariboo-Northeast). With a close score Zone 2 won the game in the final inning by three runs.
The final game Sunday morning was to determine gold/silver standings. The Zone 2 players faced basically the same team as they had in the 2012 Provincials. Zone 3 won the gold and Zone 2 won the silver.
This was the first time that Zone 2 has received a medal in the Summer Games since 2006. Cheryl Flundar was the coach of that team also.
Borrow and Johnson compete in games
Two girls from Clearwater also made the trip to Surrey.
Alli Borrow and Keisha Johnson participated in the BC Summer Games as members of the Zone 2 girls softball team.
After being rained out on the Friday, the team won its first two games on Saturday but lost game three.
This put them into the bronze medal game on Sunday against Zone 5 (Vancouver-Squamish), a team they had beaten the day before.
The game was a close one, with the score tied 1 – 1 at the bottom of the seventh. Then Zone 5 scored two runs to take the win.
“They played really well. They just weren’t able to win the big games,” said Tami Pigeon, Alli Borrow’s mother. “Still, it was the best ball those girls ever played.”
Clearwater boys have traditionally made up a large portion of the Zone 2 softball team at the BC Summer Games. However, this was the first time in many years, if ever, that girls from Clearwater helped represent the Thompson-Okanagan Zone.
