The trophy presentation was a moment of triumph for Quesnel Kada Contracting after they beat the Prince George Hurricanes to win the District 12 and 13 under-12 regional C softball championship Sunday afternoon.
But their championship cup wasn't what mattered most to the girls from Quesnel. Their main concern was finding a Freezee ice pop for a bit of cool relief on a sweltering afternoon at Freeman Park.
With a blistering sun beating down and the mercury pushing 30 C in the shade with no breeze to cool their hides, Quesnel overcame a 2-0 deficit with five runs in the bottom of the third inning to take a 5-2 lead, then survived a spirited Hurricane comeback attempt to capture the gold-medal game 9-7.
Olivia Pastachak got it started in the third inning for Quesnel with a walk and Taylor Parr doubled in the first run. Then, after Hurricanes pitcher Jasmine Polaczar issued another base on balls to Courtney Wulff, nine-year-old Avery Bautista rapped out a single to bring Parr home. Kiana Mero and Rylee Paterson also connected with their bats to put Quesnel in the lead.
"It was really hot and it was difficult but we came back and won it," said the 11-year-old Paterson, who pitched a total of 14 innings in three games Sunday. "We all realized after losing to them this morning we really needed to work well as a team and we came back and fought hard in the heat."
In the top of the fourth, Polaczar sent a Mero pitch into deep right field and used her speed to score an inside-the-park home run to cut the lead to 5-3. Bautista got Quesnel's offence going again in the bottom half of the fourth with a leadoff double and Paterson's hit down the third base line kept the inning going with two out. By the time the shelling stopped, Quesnel had four more runs across and a 9-3 lead.
Having beaten Kada Contracting 8-7 in a Sunday morning playoff, the Hurricanes rallied with four runs in the sixth inning to show they weren't willing to concede. Jordan Maloney's single off Paterson, who came on in relief of Mero in the fifth inning, was followed by a perfect bunt from Brooklyn Hill, who beat the throw to first. Polaczar connected on a two-run single and and later scored on a passed ball and the Hurricanes got one more run in to cut the deficit to 9-7.
"It was pretty hard, we thought we were going to win this," said Maloney, who started the game catching for Polaczar. "It's really hot in the (catcher's) gear and it's hard to move around when the ball gets by you."
After allowing a leadoff walk to Olivia Pastachak, Maloney did her job in the sixth, striking out Taylor Parr and Wulff, and forcing Avery Bautista to pop up to shallow centrefield for an easy out to end the inning.
Facing the bottom of the Huricanes' order, Paterson retired all three batters in the seventh to end the game.
"They showed a lot of heart, its tough when you're down by quite a few and they came back and battled through and we came up a bit short, but I'm super-proud of these girls for what they did today," said Hurricanes coach Jennifer Ferguson.
Sunday's earlier loss to the Hurricanes forced Kada Contracting to play one extra game in the afternoon heat and they pounded out a 16-5 win over the Quesnel Elks to advance to the final.
Sunday's final marked the end of the season for the house league teams but a select assortment of players will form the Prince George Thunderbirds rep team for the under-12 provincial B championship, July 17-19 in Richmond. Prince George beat Quesnel in a playoff to qualify for the 16-team provincial B tournament. Five Hurricanes players -- Polaczar, Maloney, Hill, Taleur Courtice and Emily Ferguson -- will play for the T-birds.
"I was really hoping we'd pull this game through in that last inning but it's OK, we still got second," said Polaczar, who moved to Prince George this year from Langley.
Kaitlyn Doucette of the Quesnel Elks won the most talented player award for her outstanding efforts throughout the tournament.
