NORTH YORK- Both the Bantam Girls Championship and Senior Women’s Invitational began today at Bond Park in North York, Ontario.
Three round-robin games were played in each event with action continuing until Saturday when the medal games will be played.
The following is a recap of games played on day 1.
Bantam Girls
Québec 11 Nova Scotia 1
Québec hammered-out twelve hits and rode the pitching of Camille Huppé (Gatineau, QC) and Anne-Sophie Lavallée (Boucherville, QC) to beat Nova Scotia 11-1 via the mercy rule. Québec exploded for five runs in the 3rd inning thanks in part to a single and a run scored by Huppé to help her own cause. Huppé struck out six batters in three innings before giving way to Lavallée for the final two innings. The loss aside, Nova Scotia received strong offensive performances from Kesley Brumm (Dartmouth, NS) who was 3-for-3 and Jenna Jackson (Steam Mill, NS) who was 2-for-2. Québec put up five more runs in the 5th, highlighted by a Gabrielle Lazzer (Otterburn Park, QC) two-run single to seal the victory.
Ontario 17 Alberta 0
Ontario jumped on the board with a seven-run 1st inning and never looked back as they defeated Alberta 17-0. Mikaela Kehoe (Amherstburg, ON) paced the offence with two hits and three runs scored while Jessica McKibbon (Toronto, ON) recorded the victory as she fanned six Alberta batters. Other top performers for Ontario were Victoria Saunders (Toronto, ON) with two hits, an RBI and three runs scored and McKyla Brasil Mississauga, ON) who went 3-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.
Nova Scotia 16 Ontario (2) 6
Nova Scotia rebounded from their earlier defeat and scored a 16-6 win over Ontario 2 to pick up their first win of the tournament. Nova Scotia blew the game open in the 2nd inning with six runs to take a 9-1 lead. Maria Roy’s (Hammond’s Plains, NS) triple scored two runs to key the offence in the inning. Kesley Brumm continued her solid play as she went 3-for-4, scoring 3 runs to go along with 2 RBI. Jillian Stymest (Kingston, NS) was the winning pitcher as she struck out 5 batters and Bailey Cameron (Woods Harbour, NS) followed that up with 5 strikeouts of her own in 2 innings of work. Melissa Fiorillo (Bolton, ON) was 1-for3 with 2 RBI and a run scored in a losing cause for Ontario 2.
Senior Women’s Invitational
Québec 13 Nova Scotia 1
Vanessa Riopel (Repentigny, QC) turned in a solid performance on the mound as her Québec team cruised to a 13-1 win over Nova Scotia to open the Senior Women’s Invitational. Jessica Bérubé (Québec, QC) had a huge day at the plate for Québec as she went 3-for-5 with 2 runs scored and 4 RBI. Karine Paré (Val-Des-Monts, QC) and Amélie Julien (Québec, QC) also collected three hits each for the Québec. The only blemish on Riopel's day was a single, Nova Scotia’s only hit of the game, and one walk through 5 innings of work.
Ontario 4 British Columbia 3
Kathryn Kennaley (Burlington, ON) scored the winning run in the bottom of the 9th as Ontario edged BC 4-3 in extra innings. Trailing 3-1 in the 6th, BC tied the score when a Rhianna Pettapiece (Ladysmith, BC) grounder got by second base to score two runs. Ontario had taken a 3-0 lead in the 3rd frame when Nicole Brockbank’s (Burlington, ON) double scored two runs. Kate Psota (Burlington, ON) was given the victory as she tossed 2 2/3 shutout innings that included 2 strikeouts.
In the final game of the day, Alberta defeated Ontario 2 by a score of 11-1; details of the game are unavailable at this time.
Notes: Action from both championships will continue all week with the medal game schedule for Saturday (July 30th)…Fans can follow all of the games LIVE, courtesy of Pointstreak by clicking HERE!
