It was a weekend of incredible ball for the U13 Eastman Wildcats and from redemption in the gold medal game to battling Mother Nature, they came back home with some hardware and terrific memories.
"This past weekend, we attended the Wheat City Classic in Brandon," explains head coach Jason Plett. "It was our second tournament of the year. We knew there would be some weather coming in for the weekend, so we were not quite sure and combine that with the smoke, we were not sure if we'd be able to play. But we did and it turned out to be a good weekend for us."
The veteran coach is being humble, it was more than a good weekend for his club, although he says it started a little rocky before the girls got their bats going. "We started the tournament off on the Friday, we played the Winnipeg Lightning, who we've played a few times in the last couple of weeks and we've beat them quite handily in those games, so I think our girls came in a little over confident. We ended up winning a tight one, 8-6. They played us tough, they played a good game and it kind of surprised our girls a bit. We played another game that evening, we went up against a team from Saskatchewan and we ended up winning 15-5. The girls bats were on fire and the defense played really, really well. We ran the bases really well. Really, we ran the bases well all weekend long."
After a strong opening day, Plett says they tried to carry that over into Saturday. "Saturday, we had another round robin game, we went up against Central Energy and we beat them 12-2. Then we finished off the round robin against the Westman Magic and we lost that one 14-7. The girls were just tired and didn't quite have the fuel for it. Credit to Westman, they hit the ball really well and had our girls running around to collect them. Sunday, it was the gold medal game. With a 3-1 record, we played the Westman Magic again, they were also 3-1. We were supposed to play them at 1:00 p.m. but with the rain coming and everything, they pushed the game up, so we started at 11:00 a.m. and we essentially played the whole game through the rain."
The Magic nor the weather was going to stand in the way of the Wildcats, although as Plett details, it took the whole group coming together in the middle of the contest to get the job done. "I was curious to see how the girls would play through the rain. I don't think, to be honest, at all last year, we didn't play one game in the rain. It would be a first for all of them, playing a game like that through the rain. I knew it would be a battle of the pitchers, who could grip the ball right, who could throw it across the plate and if the ball was put in play, which team would make the least amount of errors. Our girls battled hard all game long. We were down one point 7-3 about half way through and at that point, it would have been easy for our team to just give up, because it was pretty miserable and cold, but they wanted to keep playing hard. They were rewarded by winning a gold medal, winning that final 14-11 in the end."
Perhaps the biggest takeaway for Plett, through the clutch hitting, the incredible base running and stellar defense, it was the teams mental toughness, love of their teammates and character that was most impressive. "100%," he says proudly. "After those round robin games on day one, a bunch of us were camping at one of the camp grounds there in Brandon, and the whole team came out. They were playing blitz ball, hanging out and bonding as a team. They're all so close, and they all have the same attitude, they want to play hard and support each other regardless of it things are going well or bad, they are always there for each other. As a coach, it makes me super proud of them. They're learning that at a very young age and it's really special to see."
The regular season continues for the U13 Wildcats and they're also gearing up for a big tournament in the States coming up in early July.