U12 Squirt Girls win Provincial Championship!!!
Where the heck is Lucan?That was the question everyone was asking after the Lucan-Ilderton Squirt Girls Competitive team won the GOLD medal at the Provincial Women’s Softball Grand Championships in Windsor last weekend. What can I say, a bunch of hockey players thought it was a good idea to get a softball team together in their offseason. Multi-sport athletes (8 hockey players, 2 figure skaters and 1 basketball player) are something you don’t see enough of these days. The Lucan-Ilderton girls are examples of what summer is all about – not playing hockey. We started practicing indoors in February during hockey playoffs. Some kids were doing two practices a night, hockey practice and then up to Lucan for ball practice in the gym. As a newly formed team this season, we were not sure how we would fare and so we wanted lots of practice. Coach always says, “We like to practice how we play and play how we practice.” The team certainly did that this weekend in Windsor. We started with a win on Friday night in a game that dragged on for three hours because of lightning delays. Then three wins on Saturday in sweltering heat with all of our players hitting, stealing bases like crazy, striking kids out and playing solid defence. Our third win of the day (on a walk-off run scored on a pass ball) left us as the only undefeated team in the tournament and gave us a spot in the gold medal match. That game happened on Sunday afternoon on one of the hottest days of the year. The coaches were a little worried when they saw the players yawning before warmups, but little did they know that the girls had saved up their best game of the season for the final game of the Provincials. Nothing got by the infielders. Second base was the hot spot for line drives and the girls caught everything that came their way. They were smelly, dirty, bloody, bruised, and just plain awesome. Congratulations Girls!
P.S. Apparently in Lucan, when you win a Provincial Championship in hockey it’s tradition to take a ride down Main St. on the Fire Truck. Well somebody had better call the Fire Department, because these hockey playing softball girls have earned their ride!
Photo credit: Tammy Bycraft
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