Except for that one, last, final game on Thursday night.
The Ice capped the Season of COVID-19 with a 9-1 loss to the Lumsden Cubs in the league championship final in Regina, bringing an end to a campaign that saw the local squad finish with a 16-6-1 record overall and one of the top season performances for a local U-12 team in quite some time.
“It wasn’t our best-played game of the year, but it wasn’t our worst, either,” said Ice coach Rick Adrian. “Lumsden came out and played a really good game all around, they were making plays on defence, they were hitting the ball very well and they pitched very well. They were just a little bit better than us at everything and the score got away from us in a hurry.”
The Ice finished in first place in the regular-season standings and were the favourites heading into the contest, but against a team that was literally percentage points behind them. And on the day, it was Lumsden who got the timely breaks at the right times.
“The girls still played well,” Adrian said. “We put a lot of balls in play, but their slow rollers were slow enough we couldn’t make plays on them on defence and our hot shots were hit right at them. That’s why we play the game.”
One thing is for certain, regardless of the loss. The future of the sport in Moose Jaw is looking extremely good if what was seen from the youngest age groups this year holds true in the future.
“It’s the same thing I said to the girls after the game, the first goal of this season was for each of you guys to get better, and all of them are much better players than they were two months ago when we started playing and five months ago when we actually drafted the team,” Adrian said.
“So that’s success. We didn’t win the game at the end there, but those are secondary goals. The main goal is playing ball and getting them to improve at ball.”
The Ice came by their success honestly, too – in addition to having a crew of pitchers the envy of every team in the league, their defence also proved to be especially solid in spite of their youth.
That has Adrian predicting big things in coming years.
“The Ice program in Moose Jaw, we’re getting really close to a provincial championship on a couple of different levels,” he said. “This is the best U12 team I’ve seen in the seven or so years I’ve been around this league, so things are looking up for sure.
“We have some of the best shortstop, third baseman and right fielders defensively on any team that we’ve seen play. Several other positions were up there as well, but those three I would put up against any three I saw in those positions, we were well ahead of the competition… We’re in really good shape going forward and there are going to be a lot of fun seasons for these girls.”
