Fruitvale’s Ella Matteucci led the Team BC women’s baseball team to a bronze medal finish at the Canadian Baseball championship in Saguenay, Quebec on Sunday with an 8-2 win over Ontario 2.
However, Allison Schroder and the U16 Girls BC Team came up short in their run to the playoffs, finishing sixth in the tournament.
The Team BC women had mixed results in the round robin after opening up with a decisive 12-2 victory over Ontario 2, they would drop a 9-5 decision to Ontario 1 on Friday. The team would rebound with a 6-5 victory over Quebec 2 later that day, before falling to Quebec 1 on Saturday 6-3.
In Sunday’s bronze medal match against Quebec 2, with the score tied 2-2, Stephanie Caron’s fifth inning single scored two runs for Team BC to put them into a lead they would not relinquish.
Matteucci would come up after Caron and drive in one of her two runs in the game to make it 5-2, and the BC squad would add three insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth for the decisive win.
Matteucci was the top BC batter hitting .400 while going 8-for-20, with three doubles, a triple, and six RBIs. In Sunday’s final, Ontario 1 captured the championship with a 3-1 victory over Quebec 1.
Results at the National Baseball championship in Saguenay did not go as well for Schroder and the U16 team.
The U16 girls jumped out to a good start with a 15-6 victory over Quebec 2 on Thursday, but would fall in Friday’s match to Ontario 14-4 and Manitoba on Saturday 11-1.
The 1-and-2 record was not good enough for a berth into the playoffs and the 13-year-old Schroder and the rest of Team BC had to be content with a sixth place finish after losing to Nova Scotia 11-7 Sunday night.
Team BC jumped out to a 3-1 first-inning lead when Schroder doubled and scored two. But after going up 4-1 in the second, the Maritimers would stage their comeback, scoring three in the third, and two in the fourth to take a 6-4 lead. BC made it close with two in the fifth, and a single in the sixth to trail 8-7 heading into the final inning, but a three-run seventh would seal the victory for Nova Scotia.
Despite the loss, Schroder had her best game at the plate, batting 2-for-4 with a double, and three RBIs. The 13-year-old also suffered the loss on the mound, going the distance while allowing eight earned runs on 14 hits, while giving up five walks and striking out five.
In the final, Québec came back from a 4-1 deficit scoring four runs in the bottom of the third on their way to a 7-4 victory to win gold, while Alberta claimed the bronze with a 12-8 win over Manitoba.
Schroder will join the Team B.C. Girls U14 team in Yorkton, Sask. this week to play for the Western Canadian Baseball title, while Pat Brown and the Kamloops Sun Devils begin their quest for the Canadian Men’s Baseball championship in Chatham, N.B., starting Thursday.
