In a recent tournament, Sooke girls’ Bantam B team reached for, and achieved, a gold medal victory.
Playing in a tournament held at Richmond Girls Softball Association, the undefeated Sooke Bantam B girls (Sooke Cyclones) entered into their final play-off game, vying for the gold/silver medal against the Nanaimo Breakers. They won with a hard-earned 14 to 13 against the Nanaimo Breakers.
The game was scheduled to be seven innings or two hours, whichever came first.
Those limits were exceeded as the teams were tied, nine all, at the bottom of the seventh. When this happens, international rules apply, meaning the teams were given as many innings as they need in order to score a winning run. However, if the visiting team (first at bat, at the top of each inning) scores a run, the home team gets to go to bat to try and score a run at the bottom of that same inning.
At the bottom of the eighth inning, the score was again evenly matched, 11 each.
At the bottom of the ninth, it was a 12-all game.
At the top of the tenth, Nanaimo Breakers got in another run, giving them the lead at 13 to 12 over Sooke. Then, the Cyclones went to bat and got not one but two runs they needed to finally wrap-up the game. The final score, after 10 innings, was Sooke 14 and Nanaimo — a most worthy opponent — 13.
Starting pitcher was Qu Lovbakke, who pitched the first inning. Kathryn Ebert pitched eight innings, throwing 140 pitches in total. An exhausted Ebert was strategically replaced by Hailey Dimock who pitched the final inning.
“All the girls on the team participated and made great plays,” says Donna Ebert, the proud mother to one of the pitchers Kathryn Ebert.
Team members include Kathryn Ebert, Qu Lovbakke, Jaylin Doumont, Emily Bernard, Shaylin Warren, Cassidy Logan, Jessa Katz, Hailey Dimock, Hailey Bryant, Kama Mollena, Rachel Able, Jessie Power (absent) and Alisha Norman (absent). The team is coached by Noreen Lovbakke, Tray Lovbakke and Jason Dumont.
With notes from Donna Ebert