Magic fall in U13 AAA final to Lightning

Lightning struck twice on Sunday and it cost the Westman Magic the title at Softball Manitoba’s under-13 AAA provincial championship in Crystal City on Sunday afternoon.

The Winnipeg Lightning beat the Magic 14-1 in the 1-vs.-2-game in the morning for Westman’s first non-tournament loss of the season and then edged them again, 3-2, in the final. In the morning, Jaycee Hackywicz had two of her team’s four hits and scored the only run in the four-inning, mercy rule game.

In the 3-vs.-4-game, the Eastman Wildcats beat Central Energy, setting up a Westman-Eastman semifinal matchup.

It seems the Magic had some frustration to get out of their system, because they quickly dropped the maximum six runs on the Wildcats in the bottom of the first inning en route to an 11-1 mercy-rule victory.

Taylor Larson led the way with two hits, two RBI and two runs scored, with Ella Kyle and Tenley Figol also scoring the plate twice.

Emerson Anderson and Hayley Fordyce combined on a four-hitter.

In the final, the Lightning took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, with the Magic responding with two runs in the top of the third inning. Winnipeg then played two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning that proved to be the difference in a 3-2 victory.

Both teams will represent Manitoba at the western Canadian championships from Aug. 6 to 9 in Balgonie, Sask.

Hackywicz and Kyree Hart both had two hits, and Hack scored a run and had an RBI.

Fordyce was tagged with the loss in relief of Anderson, allowing four hits and two runs in her inning of relief of Anderson. Surie Small struck out the side in her inning of relief, with the trio giving up just seven hits.

The Magic went 6-0 through the round-robin, but came about as close to losing their final game as possible.

Westman was trailing the Interlake Phillies 6-4 with two out in the bottom of an extra inning when they rallied. Figol started it with a single when she drove home the runner from second — in international play, a runner starts on second in extra innings — and stole second on a wild pitch. Ella Parrott then walked to put the winning run on base.

Hackywicz tied the game when she drove in Figol with a single and Parrott advanced to third base. With Taylor Larson at the plate with a count of 2-2, Parrott scored on a wild pitch for the dramatic victory.

Maci Watters had two hits and drove in two runs for the Magic, who were tied 4-4 with the Phillies after six innings.

Anderson, Small and Fordyce all pitched, scattering 11 hits and five earned runs over second innings. Fordyce earned the victory in 1 1/3 innings of relief.

Earlier Saturday, the Magic pushed across six runs in the first inning and emerged with a mercy-rule, four-inning 13-0 victory over Central.

Parrott drove in three runs, and Hackywicz, Watters and Ella Kyle each had three hits. Fordyce had two hits, two RBI and two runs scored.

Anderson and Small held the Energy to just two hits and struck out four.

On Friday, the Magic beat the Lightning 19-6 and the Wildcats 13-1, after starting Thursday by topping the Manitoba Angels 12-5 and the Smitty’s Terminators 10-9.

Eastman won the U15, U17 and U19 AAA championships.

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