The Alberta 14U girls baseball team represented the province with flying colours at the Western Canadian Baseball Championships in Winnipeg.
Last weekend after a successful tournament, Alberta won the gold medal against Saskatchewan in dominating fashion 16-6.
Head coach of Alberta and Red Deer County resident Desmond Bouteiller said it was an amazing experience for the team.
“It was a short turnaround to get these girls working together and the amount of talent they had definitely showed that they were the best team out there at the tournament,” he said.
In the final game, Bouteiller said it was a tight matchup. After Alberta jumped out to a 5-0 lead, Saskatchewan came back and tied it before Alberta took the game over with the bats.
“We went to another one of our girls in relief and she came out and just dominated and I think that kind of took the wind out of their sail. Then we just exploded with hitting and took over at the end of the game,” he said. “Every girl had something they had contributed and it was a total team effort.”
Alberta finished the tournament undefeated at 4-0 in round robin play, beating British Columbia 14-0 in a combined no-hitter before securing a win against Saskatchewan 10-4. In the final round-robin game, Alberta beat Manitoba 16-6 and advanced to the final as the top seed.
Earlier this year some of the girls on the team played together for a few games, which Bouteiller said gave them a good look at what sort of talent they’d be working with heading into westerns. This all came together in a pre-tournament camp the weekend before the championships in Spruce Grove where they learned to work as a team.
“We kind of ran them through the paces pretty heavily and they took in a lot of information and expectations over that weekend. They definitely didn’t disappoint,” he explained.
He admitted they didn’t know what to expect because this was one of the first tournaments coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. They didn’t know where other provinces stood in terms of talent but the coaching staff was confident in this group of players. A few of the players will also be joining Team Alberta in the 2022 National 16U Girls Championship in Prince Edward Island this weekend.
“It shows a lot that our province has set the bar pretty high with girls baseball coming out of that break in play,” he said. “It’s exciting to see how girls baseball in the province is taking that leap ahead… It’s pretty nice to see how a group of girls can come together and play as a team and win in such a convincing fashion.”
Bouteiller said on Sept. 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, and 25 Baseball Alberta will be holding fall camp for girls baseball for those aged 10-14 and 15 plus. It will be held in Spruce Grove and will cost $100 per player to participate.
Amongst all the talent on the Albertan roster included Red Deer pitcher Tessa Klassen who started on the mound for Alberta in the win against Manitoba.
Klassen told the Advocate winning the gold medal felt great.
“I was thankful to play with such a good group of girls and to be able to share that moment with them. Winning gold is always fun to do so I was glad to be a part of that,” she said.
Playing for her home province she said was a cool experience because not many people get that opportunity to pitch in such a high-level tournament. Pitching has always been her favourite position and has been playing the sport for four years.
“I watched my brother play competitive baseball when I was younger and it made me want to play ball too. My dad played catch with me and stuff so it kind of got me interested. And then this year I tried out for more competitive and it worked out and I had a lot of fun. I got more experiences and more opportunities,” she said.
Klassen played for the 13U AA1 Northstar Braves this season and will try out for them again next summer.