Heat softball teams ready for Provincials challenge

By Lethbridge Herald on July 6, 2022.

Herald photo by Justin Seward Lethbridge Heat U17 player Leigh Kowalchuk catches a ball at first base during practice at Miners field in this July 2022 file photo . Herald FIle photo Lethbridge Heat U17 player Leigh Kowalchuk catches a ball at first base during practice at Miners field in this July 2022 file photo. Lethbridge Minor Softball Association is wanting to build off of the success of last year’s Heat teams.

Justin Seward – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – sports@lethbridgeherald.com

Three Lethbridge Heat softball teams are preparing for the “D” Provincials in St. Paul this weekend.

 U15 team coach Beth Moulton said a lot of it is team bonding, when talking  about preparation.

“Practices are a way to team bond,” said Moulton.

“We’ve had a couple of tournaments out of town. So, you know, we have the overnight stay in a hotel. So they have time for a team meal and some fun in the pool, which I think really helps them to get to know each other and trust each other, which overlaps on the field as well.”

The girls participated in the new Southern Alberta Softball Series this season , which was comprised of three main teams of Calgary, Medicine Hat and Lethbridge.

Each team took a turn hosting a weekend of games and invited other teams to play.

“Which is really a good way to showcase and practice things we needed to work on and also get that confidence by playing actual game time,” she said.

Moulton thinks it all boils down to the past tournaments they played in, having a good showing and knowing what they needed to work on is where the team will have success in St. Paul with unfamiliar opponents.

“I think we have a really good, strong defensive strength to our girls, good awareness, good hustle there (and) knowing that we have to work on our bats and that consistency a little bit,” she said.

As for the U17’s, they did a playdown with Medicine Hat a couple of weekends ago and won quite handily.

“Well there’s an old saying, I think Yogi Berra said it, said ‘Baseball is 90 per cent mental,’” said coach Tyler Fallwell.

“We do a lot of work on that, trying to get in the right mindset to play and at the end of the day it’s about having fun on the field and it doesn’t matter who you’re playing. You’re always playing for yourself and as I tell the girls, what you do in the dark shows up in the lights.”

He set out three goals for the team this year with the first one being to win a game, secondly to compete and win the Stettler tournament and thirdly was to compete and win provincials.

The first two were met and now the Provincials win remains to be seen.

“They’re in the right head space,” he said.

“They’re having fun here. There’s no turmoil. Again, it’s about having fun on the field. They’re all amazing ball players and people.”

As for the U13s, for most of the players it was their first time picking up a glove this year.

“It has been a lot of fun,” said head coach Ian Eennett.

“Like I said, a lot of very new players and even our experienced players are still fairly new to the games. So, it’s been a really long process trying to see who might fit into which position, who can learn different skills a little bit quicker. Yeah, I think we’re going into a good spot where girls are going to be comfortable with their responsibility on the diamond and see if we can put things together.”

The hope is for the girls to get a positive outcome out of the Provincials experience.

“The idea is they’re learning some skills, they’re making friends, they’re creating some memories and we want those memories and friendships to be positive and they continue to play the sport again next year,” he said.

The U13 team got an automatic spot in provincials because no one on the division wanted it.

The “D” Provincials will be July 8-10 in St. Paul.