U17 Heat win gold

By Lethbridge Herald on July 11, 2022.

Photo courtesy Tyler Fallwell The Lethbridge Heat U17 softball team came away with a Provincial title in St. Paul over the weekend.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

While the road to “D”  Provincials gold wasn’t easy for the Lethbridge Heat U17 softball team this weekend , the girls still found a way to come out on top after beating the Lloydminster Miners 13-10 in Sunday’s final in St. Paul.

“It was see-saw battle I would say,” said Heat heads coach Tyler Fallwell.

“We were down and came back and scored six runs in the sixth inning to pull ahead and shut them down in the bottom of the seventh.”

Fallwall said the girls feed off of emotions and how you react to plays when they happen on the field.

The team dropped their opening game of the tournament to the  Sundre Misfits 21-12 on Friday, and also was their first defeat this season

“The first game,  we just came out flat,” said Fallwell.

“I think the girls, they were nervous. It’s a different atmosphere (at) Provincials. There’s more people, there’s more fans, there’s more umps, there’s just more things and I think the nerves were pretty high. After we got through that one — the loss — we had a chat and then we had that real tough game  afterward where we went into extra innings and it brought back a focus for the girls.”

The Heat rebounded with a 24-19 extra innings win over the Manning Comets to wrap up their Friday. The girls woke up Saturday morning and beating the Coronation Steelers 13-3 and later losing to  the Liners 10-5.

The game against Lloydminster saw Paige Snideman go out with a torn calf after trying to run from second to third base and couldn’t move.

“There was some turmoil in there and some worry,” said Fallwall.

“And I think that played heavily on their hearts and in their minds. But we regrouped again on Sunday.”

Lethbridge won the tiebreaker against the Misfits 11-4 before beating Calgary- South Bow River 12-11 in the semi-final.

“We’re constantly building Lethbridge Minor Softball,” he said.

“To have success like this inspires our young athletes to come out, play and try the game.”

The U15s won the silver medal and the U13s were ousted from their tournament in their round robin.

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