MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- The Moose Jaw U13 A Ice proved to be the hosts with the most during the Moose Jaw Minor Girls ‘A’ Fastball Tournament this past weekend.
And with a break or two, they could have had a lot of local company in winning gold medals during the event, which took place Saturday and Sunday at diamonds all over the city.
The U13s ended up in an absolute barnburner in their championship final, taking a 14-13 win over the South Bow River Rockies in an extra inning.
For U15 Ice, it was a tough 2-1 loss to the Regina Saints in the gold medal game, while the U11 Ice ran into a buzzsaw from Prince Albert and dropped a 15-0 decision in their title contest.
U13 Division
The Ice put together a stellar showing throughout the weekend in the U13 division, going unbeaten in their two round robin games and then defeating the Lloydminster Liners in their playoff opener.
That sent Moose Jaw to the ‘A’ side final, where they’d drop a 12-11 decision to the Rockies and fall to the ‘B’ side final. There, the Ice rebounded with a 14-1 win over the Twin City Angels, setting up the gold medal rematch with South Bow River.
The gold medal game saw the Ice trailing 7-4 through three innings, but they rallied to take a 9-7 lead with five runs in the fifth, only to see the Rockies respond with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning to go ahead 10-9.
Moose Jaw retook the lead with another two runs in the sixth and made it a 12-10 lead in the seventh, but Bow River would find a way to tie the game. That sent things to extras, where the Ice took a 14-12 edge and then held the Rockies to single run in the bottom of the frame to earn the win.
U11 Division
The Ice Crushers went 2-0 in their U11 division round robin, but lost their first playoff game to the Moose Jaw Ice Breakers, who had gone 1-1 in their pool. The Crushers rebounded with a 6-5 win over the Regina Storm on the ‘B’ side and then downed the Breakers 6-4 in the semifinal to book their gold medal battle with the Prince Albert Aces Fiddler.
The Breakers won their first ‘A’ side game 17-1 over the Saskatoon Hustlers, and after their win over the Crushers, dropped the ‘A’ side final 10-0 to Prince Albert, setting up their narrow semifinal loss to their Moose Jaw counterparts.
U15 Division
The Ice posted a 2-0 record in the round robin but lost their first playoff game 9-5 to the Lloydminster Liners.
That made for a long road back through the ‘B’ side, where the Ice strung together three-straight wins -- including a 8-7 victory over the Saskatoon Hustlers, 13-5 win over South Bow Valley and a measure of revenge in a 4-2 win over Lloydminster to advance to the championship game.
The U15 B Ice lost two close round robin games but won their first Consolation game 18-12 over the South East Sun Devils. They’d be unable to keep the roll going, though, falling 11-4 to the Meadow Lake Sox to see their tournament come to an end.
