A local softball tournament in Unity this past weekend took the spotlight to start the week, but local teams were busy province wide playing in some fierce competition to end their season.
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The U13 division had the most teams in play, seven teams from West Central competed in a 27-team tournament in Rosthern over the weekend.
Kindersley, Outlook and Delisle were all together in the Yellow Pool, Outlook the lone local team advancing to Sunday. Together in the Blue Pool were the Biggar Nationals and Macklin Lakers who each finished 2-1, Macklin beating Biggar 9-7 in their head-to-head matchup to earn their Sunday spot. Unity went undefeated in their Orange Pool games to play Sunday, and finally the Elrose Aces went winless in the Green Pool to end their weekend after Saturday.
In the playoff round Unity beat the Valley Vipers 10-2 to advance to the semis. Outlook wasn't as lucky in their quarter final losing 14-7 to Muenster, and in the second set of quarterfinals Wynyard beat Macklin to leave Unity as the only local team left.
In a battle of strong ball towns, Muenster came out on top against Unity 10-2 in the semis to place the Panthers in the bronze medal game against Turtleford for a close 10-8 loss. In the gold medal game Wynyard stopped Muenster's momentum with a 9-7 win to finish out an undefeated tournament run.
Not the only U13 tournament being played, the Leader Expos were part of a 24-team field in Regina.
Taking two high scoring wins after a tournament opening loss to the Estevan Elite, Leader played well enough to make Sunday's quarterfinals where they lost a high scoring game 13-11 against Moosomin.
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Moving up a level to U15, the only local tournament this past weekend was in Unity, where the Macklin Lakers beat the host Unity Panthers in the bronze medal game.
Other U15 action saw the Rosetown Angels play in the 'C' tournament in Regina in a group of 24 teams. Rosetown was part of the Orange Pool with Indian Head, Saskatoon, Regina, Twin City, and Langenburg, and had a terrific round robin going undefeated and outscoring opponents 50-27.
The offense kept rolling for the Angels to the tune of a 10-6 win over Davidson in the quarterfinals, but Rosetown's run would end in the semis after an 8-4 loss to Churchbridge. The bats failed to reactivate again in the bronze medal game against the Saskatoon Lasers Bourassa, as the Angels wound up going home empty handed losing 13-5, their semifinal opponents Churchbridge taking the gold with a 7-0 win over the Saskatoon Redhawks in the gold game.
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The only local U19 team in the mix still, the Unity Panthers travelled to Saskatoon for a stiff test in the 'B' championship. The Panthers started out with a 15-0 win over the Yukon Sundogs, before a loss to start Saturday 14-7 against the Sasaktoon Select Titans, their tournament ending Saturday afternoon with a 16-4 loss to the eventual tournament champion Regina Riot.
Two more provincial softball tournaments are coming up this weekend with local teams in action.
The final weekend of July is for the adult competition, local representation on the women's side from the UK Royals out of Unity, and then the Delisle Diamond Dogs and Conquest Capitals part of the group on the mens side:
U17 'B' - Rosthern/Hague - July 18-20
- Macklin Lakers
U17 'C' - Tisdale - July 18-20
- Delisle Dominators
- Unity Panthers
- Kindersley Royals
Women's Open - Moose Jaw - July 25-27
- UK Royals (Unity)
Men's Open - Saskatoon - July 25-27
- Delisle Diamond Dogs
- Conquest Capitals