Wildcats win silver

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This article was published 10/08/2024 (327 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The U13 Eastman Wildcats brought home the silver from Brandon, earning a second place at Westerns last weekend.

The team was perfect through pool play, winning all six games they played. They then got through a bye in the knockout stage and into the final, where they lost to the Moose Jaw Ice, the team they had just beaten in the knockout stage.

Moose Jaw battled its way through the loser’s bracket to make it back against Eastman, this time picking up a second gold, after winning Saskatchewan’s provincials. The Wildcats settled for a second silver, a medal they won at their provincials last weekend.

Head Coach Jason Plett said it was pretty special getting to play with the nine other teams from B.C., Saskatchewan and Manitoba, after Alberta decided not to send their winning teams to the games this year.

He said the heat in Brandon on Thursday and Friday made the first two days of the tournament a challenge, but the team did well anyway.

“The Thursday-Friday was so hot, Saturday was a bit more comfortable, and then Sunday the big challenge was we had a big-time rain delay,” Plett said.

He said the team was up at 6:30 on championship Sunday, to play an early morning 9 o’clock start. Then the rain started, and it lasted. The Wildcats got one inning of work in at 9, then packed everything up and resumed at 2:30 p.m.

Because other games had to be played after Eastman’s match finished, the gold medal game only started around 9:30, under the lights.

Plett said he owes the team’s silver medal to the hard work players put in since they started practicing last November.

“The girls are like sponges, they just soak everything us coaches are trying to get through to them and teach them,” Plett said. “They worked their butt off to get where they were.”

He said the team played a quick exhibition game last fall and looking back, the team improved so much.

“Looking back on that, to where they’ve came today, it’s crazy the advancements that they have made in their skills and their batting.”

Along with many practices, the Wildcats also travelled to the U.S. for three different tournaments, including a first place in Kansas City, second place in Bismarck, N.D., and a quarter-final loss in Mankato, Minn.

While the U13 Wildcats got a silver medal, the U17 Wildcats missed out on medals at Nationals, going 4-3 in Calgary, earning eighth place out of 24 teams.