Eastman Wildcats dominate U17 AAA provincials

The Eastman Wildcats cruised to a championship at Softball Manitoba’s U17 AAA provincials at Ashley Neufeld Softball Complex in Brandon on the weekend, beating Central Energy 4-0 in the final on Sunday.

Eastman went 6-0 in the round-robin, outscoring their opponents 54-21, then beat Central 10-1 in the 1-vs-2 game on Sunday morning to vault into the final.

The Westman Magic edged the Interlake Phillies 5-3 in the 3-vs.-4 game, earning a semifinal matchup with Central. After the Energy won 3-2 in nine innings, it set up a third meeting of the weekend between Eastman and Central.

Eastman coach Russ Kihn said his club, which went 18-6 in the regular season, had a great game against a tough opponent.

“It was a little closer but Central Energy is a really strong team,” said Kihn, whose daughter Lola threw a two-hitter in the final.

“They’re a good club. We’ve played them a lot this year and they battle all the time right through. Today, our pitcher, Lola Kihn, pitched amazing. She threw a fantastic game and our defence was strong, like always. It was fitting we ended the game on a double play, showing the defence is the most important thing and that’s what we’re about.”

Eastman broke open a scoreless tie with three runs in the bottom of the third inning and added one more in the sixth frame. They ended the game in the field on a beautifully executed double play. Lola Kihn, who hit a grand slam against the Magic during the round-robin, was named tournament MVP.

Overall, the Wildcats went 8-0 and outscored their opponents 68-22, more than tripling them. They held their opponents to two or fewer runs in five games.

“Through the few days, I liked the way they built to the weekend,” Kihn said.

“It wasn’t a slow start — we won two games the first day — but it was close games and they learned from that and started fighting a little more, and the bats got hotter as the weekend went. We started playing stronger teams and we just got better

“The way they kept improving and weren’t just satisfied with what they had was fantastic.”

Eastman and Central will represent Manitoba at the national championship in Calgary from July 29 to Aug. 2, with Westman and Interlake heading to the western Canadian championships in St. Albert, Alta., from Aug. 6 to 9.

Last weekend, Eastman’s U15 squad also won gold at provincials. The Wildcats made it three gold medals on the year this weekend, with the organization’s U19 team also striking gold.

The Wildcats needed to bounce back after dropping their first two games of the tournament, but rattled off five consecutive wins to clinch gold.

Annabelle Tetrault powered the Eastman offense in their 9-2 win over Central Energy in the final. She went 2/3 with two RBIs and came around to score three runs in the win.

Valley City commit Kelsey Warkentine, was named tournament most valuable player and pitched a complete game for the Wildcats, striking out eight while allowing just four hits over six innings. Across the tournament she pitched 25.2 innings for Eastman at provincials, striking out 34 batters.

The U19 nationals are in Calgary Aug. 5-9.