Brandon teams battle in provincial final

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This article was published 18/07/2022 (1316 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s not often that two teams gather at the plate to take a picture together before a provincial final.

But then Sunday’s under-15 A girls softball matchup wasn’t like most provincial finals: It pitted a pair of Brandon teams filled with girls who have played with and against each other all their sporting lives.

While the Imperial Photo Hawks ultimately beat the Keystone Dental Dragons 6-4 in the Softball Manitoba event in Winkler, Hawks assistant coach Suzanne Sullivan said both teams entered the game knowing it was special.

Each had weathered terrific battles in the semifinal, and were entering their fourth game on a warm day, with a high of 33 in Winkler and a top humidex of 46 with fairly light winds.

“Imagine two groups of girls that are coming together that are just exhausted and hot and tired, because this was going to be our fourth game of the day,” said Sullivan, who serves as Softball Brandon’s vice-president of recreation and manages the U13, U15 and U17 house leagues. “We decided ahead of time that we were going to do a group photo of all of us at home plate before the game started.

“That’s almost the best moment of it all. These girls are all friends, they all go to school together, and then we parted ways, went to our own benches and played a great game.”

Brandon’s house league squads are decided each year by a pre-season draft of the players, which means the rosters are different every year.

The U15 age group, which is comprised this year of girls born in 2007 and 2008, had enough players for three teams. The house league squads joined the Westman league, and actually only played each other twice this summer. In a measure of how competitive the teams were, they each had a win and a loss against the other.

All three teams entered provincials, which was an open event that allows any eligible team to enter without any kind of qualifying.

“Basically if girls want to go, we get as many girls to provincials as we can,” Sullivan said. “It just so happens that the U15 age group is ultra competitive here and we have really solid numbers so we managed to field three teams.”

The event drew 28 teams to Winkler this year, but even with the massive draw, Sullivan was fairly certain the Hawks would make an impact.

After all, they brought a lot of experience.

“My expectations were that we could compete and make a playoff run,” Sullivan said. “But I’ve been coaching this group of girls since they were U8 — this age group has my daughter in it — and last year they finished third at provincials. The year before that two Brandon teams were 1-2 at provincials in U12.

“It’s not a surprise we did so well but I think we catch others off guard sometimes.”

Sullivan said it’s nice for girls who aren’t in the competitive AAA Magic stream to still be able to share the chance to attend provincial events.

“It’s so important, and I think that’s why our program, and I’ll speak for Softball Brandon but I can say this Westman-wide, our programs are so solid because these girls get this experience and get this opportunity to go and compete,” Sullivan said. “My daughter has been going to a provincial since she was in U10 and here we are at 15U and they’re familiar with the process, they see the competition, they get to play great games.”

After a severe thunderstorm hit Winkler early Saturday morning — Brandon was also battered — play had to be condensed because it took time for the diamonds to absorb all the water. Since every team had played twice on Friday and had two games on Saturday, the coaches agreed to shorten games from five innings to three to finish the round-robin.

The Hawks finished first in their seven-team pool with a record of 4-0, while the Dragons were third in theirs at 3-1 after a countback, and WCG was second in their pool, also at 3-1.

That meant all three teams advanced to the round of 16 on Sunday, along with Glenboro, Killarney, Roblin and Virden from Westman.

Hamiota topped WCG in the first game on Sunday morning to end their tournament, while Imperial Photo beat MacDonald-Arkle 15-8, Hamiota 15-8 and Winkler 11-4 to book their spot in the final.

On the other side of the draw, Keystone Dental earned wins over Killarney, Glenboro and Virden to advance.

All three Hawks coaches are teachers and veteran coaches, so they hammered home the point the girls had to constantly hydrate, stay out of the sun and rest when they could.

“I saw every single one of those girls do something special in moments where we needed it,” Sullivan said. “We have some big hitters but we have girls that play such good small ball and they just put it all together.

“We had parents supporting us with cold water and keeping the girls fed. It was fantastic. It all just came together.”

To make the feat even more remarkable, the Hawks competed with just nine players because some couldn’t make it. Georgia Hall and Ashley Sullivan pitched every inning, with Emily Beckwith and Jorja Gagnon behind the plate catching them.

Jordan Bell, Reece Cowan, Devyn Moncur, Macey McIvor and Kaitlyn Couckuyt were also on the team, which was coached by Hailey Curtis, with assistants Sullivan and Greg Beckwith.

Keystone Dental was coached by Landon Desjardin along with assistants Jon Forsythe and Jennifer McBeth, and included pitchers Brynna Andrew and Layla Desjardin, plus Kacey McCorquodale, Grace Bakkan, Bailey Anderson, Devin Kerman-Forsythe, Chloe McBeth, Peyton McKay, Hailey Noto and Kennedy Smith.

In the final, the Dragons went up 2-0 after two innings, but the Hawks struck for six runs in the third frame to take a commanding 6-2 lead. After a scoreless fourth, the Dragons fought back with a pair of runs in top of the fifth inning, but the rally was ultimately extinguished for a 6-4 final.

Even though it had been a long day, it was a happy group of Hawks when they won the battle of the buddies.

“They were so excited,” Sullivan said. “Two years ago, some of these girls were on the winning end of a provincial championship and some were on the losing end. Actually one of my players mentioned to me that she had a silver and a bronze but never had a gold, so this was her first gold at provincials. It was pretty special for them all.”

Incredibly, it’s a story that’s not completely written yet. Four girls from each of the three house league teams also formed a AA team, and they will serve as hosts for U15 AA provincials at the Ashley Neufeld Softball Complex from Aug. 12 to 14.

While the Hawks will go into the record books as 2022 15U A provincial champions, Sullivan said it was ultimately a victory for Softball Brandon.

“It felt like a battle (on Sunday),” Sullivan said. “We started at 9 a.m., and I don’t remember what time the last pitch was thrown at, 6:30 or something like that, but it was hot. I think it’s that much sweeter because it was such a battle.

“The other team was so, so good too. Honestly, it could go either way. If we played them again today, they would probably beat us, so kudos to them. It was a win, no matter how things went.”

» Watch for more softball coverage this week for a pair of team profiles, with the U15 Magic on Wednesday and the provincial host U13 Magic on Thursday.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson