It was a great weekend of ball despite the bad weather.  The score sheets had to be handed in to the tournament organizers, so we can't provide a play-by-play of all the great things that happened over the weekend, but here are some highlights:

Zee pitched like a demon inning after inning.....mowing many batters down at the plate.  Those she didn't take care of were put out by the defense behind her.  And don't forget the 2-out, full-count change-up to strike out the last batter in the Mission game.  AMAZING!! 

Emma caught inning after inning, not lettng a single run score on a passed ball and throwing runners out at 2nd when she had the chance.  

Memorable defensive plays include Leilah's catches in left field, Maddy's game-saving catch in centre with bases loaded, Emily leaping to snag a hard hit line drive heading past 2nd toward right-centre, Carly catching pop-ups at 1st and Sydney scooping grounders and throwing runners out at 1st. 

Memorable hits include Meghan's hit to the outfield with bases loaded, Maddy's hit to right-centre to score the tying run followed by her steal to home to score the winning run, a line drive by Leilah down the right field line, a couple of hits pounded by Zee to the outfield, singles by Jaden, Sydney, Carly and Erin.  And every player laid down one or more good bunts....how great is that?? 

Without the score sheets to tell the story of the defensive plays and great hits, much has been missed in this report.  Apologies to those whose memorable moments were missed here....there were so many, it's hard to keep track!!   But everyone knows that some GREAT ball was played this past weekend.  Thunder was undefeated heading into the final game.  In a true double knock-out tournament that team would have had to play us again to take the gold medal. 

THUNDER ROCKS!!

This team is headed to Regionals on the long weekend!  We are seeded well to win this tourney.   Let's practice hard between now and then and take them by storm!!!

Here is some information from the tournament coordinator:

Coach Megan reports that I missed one of the best league games of the season.   She says:

Everyone worked hard in warm-up and was ready to play ball and kick some behind. 

Carly began pitching and right off the bat the girls were on their game, she pitched great and there were a couple of nice hits but we shut them down with only one run scored.  Zee and Emily also had good appearances on the mound.  The other team was only able to score four runs in the game.

Maddy made a great save at 2nd, practically dove to catch a ball!

Carly and Lesley both made great catches in the outfield. 

Sydney had some great innings behind the plate, including an awesome throw to Leihlah at 3rd, and Leihlah was in the perfect position to tag runner and make the out.    

Meghan stopped a grounder and tagged the runner who was heading to 1st.  

Emma made two fantastic throws to Syd to get the runner trying to steal 2nd and another to 3rd where Lesley was able to tag the runner out.

Everyone was in position, covering throws and making the right plays. 

The bats were hot with great hits by Zee, Meghan, Maddy, Emily, Erin and Sydney.  Everyone got on base at least once, some a few times.  Beautiful bunts by Lesley, Emily, and a PERFECT bunt by Erin, nobody saw it coming and all three made it on base! 

WAY TO GO THUNDER!!
 

It was an early start to the day and it was pretty chilly outside, but the Thunder players showed up to play ball.  Everyone was pumped and working hard in warm-up.   We lost both games but we played some of the best ball we have played all year.   As it turned out, we will go to Regionals instead of Districts but regardless, the Thunder players can be proud of the outcome today.

The game summaries are below.  If there had been and MVP for the day it most likey would have been Megan Connolly.  While everyone played hard and contributed to the outcome, I think every player recognizes Megan's hard work, pitching every inning and racking up 15 strike-outs in 12 innings.  She must have been very sore and tired Saturday night.....but she gave it her all for the team! Way to go Megan and all the Thunder players!!

Game 1:

Although both games were nail-biters, this game was the more exciting of the two.  We held the Bandits scoreless through the top of the 4th.  At the bottom of the 4th the score was 1-0 for us.  At the bottom of the 5th the score was 2-2.  Bandits took the lead in the top of the 6th and the final score was 4-2.

Our defense was fantastic:  Megan struck out two in the 1st inning and Emily snagged hard grounder to get the 3rd out.  In the 2nd inning, Megan K'd all three.   In the 3rd, Megan K'd two and Emma scooped a grounder and threw hard to 1st for the out.  In the 4th Megan K'd two more and Carly put the last one out unassisted.  The 5th Megan made the first out stopping a grounder and throwing the runner out at 1st, then Carly jumped on a bunt while Emily scooted to 1st to take the throw.  We had some trouble in this inning, allowing a couple of runners on base with walks and then Bandits ran the bases hard and scored 2 runs.  In the 6th inning Megan K'd the first batter then the next batter hit a double and the following batter laid down a bunt.  Both runners scored before Megan K'd the 4th batter and Syd caught a pop-up foul to close out the inning.   All in all, it was a great showing on defense by the Thunder!

On the offense side:  Lesley hit two nice singles, Megan and Syd both pounded doubles to the outfield.  Maddy hit beautiful single as well.   Some other runners got on base with walks.  We struggled at the plate, though, and just couldn't string enough hits together to score more runs than the Bandits.   Kudos to Bandits for some solid defense, especially by their catcher thowing our runners out on the bases.

Game 2:

On defense:  Once again we played  solid game.   In the 1st inning, to start things off Carly caught a fly in centre that would surely have turned into a home run if it was missed.  Megan K'd the next batter.  The Bandits got the next three batters on base, then Emily closed out the inning by stopping a grounder at 2nd.  In the 2nd inning, Emma threw out a runner attempting to steal 2nd, Megan K'd  a batter and Maddy made a most spectacular out from right field by scooping up a ball that made it through the infield and throwing a rocket to put the runner out at 1st.  In the 3rd inning, Megan K'd two and Maddy stopped a grounder at 2nd for the 3rd out.   In the 4th inning Emily owned the Bandits, taking all three outs....a pop-up behind 2nd and stopping two grounders then throwing to Carly at 1st.   In the 5th inning, Megan had all three outs on K's.   In the 6th, Emily caught another fly behind 2nd and Megan K'd two.  And in the 7th inning, Megan K'd two more and stole a bunt away, thowing the runner out at 1st.

On offense:  Our batters put the ball in play more this game, but the Bandit's defense was solid.  Zee pounded the ball to right centre for a double that scored Emma and then she came in on a hit by Carly.   We only managed to score those to runners, though so the Bandits took the game.