Skip to content

Summerland hosts fastball championships

Summerland Minor Fastball hosted the Senior D Championships, for players 20 and older, at Dale Meadows Sports Complex July 26 and 27.
71281summerlandSoftballprocession
Alyssa Vader and Mikayla Joynt led the teams on to the field for opening ceremonies at the Summerland Minor Fastball Senior D Championships on the weekend. Teams from around the province gathered in Summerland for the tournament.

Summerland Minor Fastball hosted the Senior D Championships, for players 20 and older, at Dale Meadows Sports Complex July 26 and 27.

Seven teams from Abbotsford, Fleetwood, Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey and Ridge Meadows participated.

Games started on Saturday morning.

At noon on Saturday, all teams gathered for opening ceremonies with Mayor Janice Perrino, Softball B.C. senior coordinator Jeff Snowdon, umpire in chief Darryl Tarr and all the men in blue, Lindsea Cutt and Summerland Minor Fastball president Carol Van Balkom. Perrino threw the opening pitch.

The double knockout round started Saturday at 5 p.m. with Fleetwood Devils in first place.

The rest of the teams from second to seventh place played right away.

The first team to be knocked out with two losses were the Vancouver Characters, but they said they had a great time while in Summerland.

Fleetwood Bandits played a game first thing Sunday morning and won that game. They continued by winning the next game advancing them to the final on Sunday at 4 p.m.

The Burnaby Chaos won their first game Sunday morning but lost to Bandits 5-1 in the second game. They then played Abbotsford Fireballs which they won 8-1 to advance to the finals.

The Abbotsford Fireballs lost their first game Sunday but won the next one 11-10 over Fleetwood Devils, only to lose to Chaos 8-1 to take third place.

The Fleetwood Bandits, coached by Dan Brown, and Burnaby Chaos, coached by Lyle Saito, played the final seven-inning game on Sunday at 4 p.m. with the Bandits winning 7-4 to claim the senior ladies D provincial championship.

People involved with the tournament included the Cutt family, the Martin family, the U14 Scorpions team, Tom Nelson, Bob Van Balkom. Janet Weir, the Knowles family, the Jamieson-Harvey family and all scorekeepers and Jeff Snowdon, Softball B.C. coordinator.

Summerland Minor Fastball also held their wind-up and awards evening at Powell Beach recently. Everyone had a fun night with a barbecue, dunk tank and a surprise ball game between the parents and players.

The awards for most sportsmanlike and most improved were also given out that evening.

The most sportsmanlike players for U8 were the whole team. Coaches Rachelle Blanchard Yeoman and Sherri Lund said all the children were great.  Others recognized as most sportsmanlike were U12 Ryan Taylor, coached by Tyler Chick and Brock Doyle; U14 Xsara Jamieson-Harvey, coached by Dave Martin, Mike Wright, and Rick Buchan; U16 Jessica Erhardt, coached by Tom Nelson, and Jenny Chick and U19 Betty Jean Kruger Cardenas, coached by Janet Weir and Juanita Kruger.

Most improved players were U12 Kaylar Cockle, U14 Emily Wright, U16 Sara Beggs and U19 Brittany Michard.