Going for the experience yielded silver for five Foothills softball stars.
Okotoks Outlaws Devyn Arnold, Mikhaela Muir, Abby Rowland, Marin Flanagan and Mikayla Chanut hit a collective home run at the 2016 Alberta Summer Games in Leduc in exceeding expectations to bring Zone 2 the softball silver.
“A lot of us weren’t expecting that,” said Chanut, the team’s first baseman. “We were expecting to go and have a good time and then the silver medal just made the whole weekend.
“We worked really well as a team and also had strong defence, strong bats and came back when we were down in games.”
Zone 2, Big Country, battled back to win four straight contests following a less than ideal introduction to the marquee youth sport showcase in the province. The powerhouse Zone 4 Parkland squad put up a 16-4 result at Zone 2’s expense in the opener.
“The Zone 4 team we first met, everyone knew who they were. They were all made up of teams we played in provincials,” said Arnold, Big Country’s third baseman.
“We knew that was going to be challenging, especially because that team almost won provincials.
“Most of us wanted to win, but it was challenging to get up and win that game.”
Big Country went back to the drawing board and strung together a major resurgence on the diamond in producing consecutive blowout victories in outscoring its opponents by a 20-1 margin to book a ticket to the playoff round.
The hot streak extended to the semifinal where Zone 2 dispatched Calgary’s Zone 3 by a 13-6 score.
Chanut, who was swinging a hot stick in the tournament, put a punctuation mark on the victory with a big home run in the semifinal.
“We had a couple really big plays that made the difference and got us rallying,” she said.
The victory catapulted the squad into a rematch with Parkland with the gold medal on the line.
Under the bright lights, Big Country gave Parkland everything it could handle in a much more competitive match with Zone 4 coming away in a narrow 10-8 result.
“We got brought more together and were more of a team with the experiences playing other teams on the high note,” Arnold said. “We just kept playing up and never got down on each other and it felt more like a team game than before.”
Big Country made noise in Leduc in more ways than one.
It was awarded the Spirit Award as the most enthusiastic zone at the opening ceremony, while the softball team took in the experience in watching the baseball, basketball and football events.
“No matter what, you have fun up there and it’s not all about winning,” Arnold said. “There were lots of girls there and it was like making new friends all over again and a big experience that’s going to be a part of you for the rest of your life.”
Fourth-place finishers at the provincial championships earlier this summer, the Games represented a new chapter for the Foothills Five.
“Compared to a lot of tournaments we’ve been to it was a lot more competitive and everyone was there to play,” Chanut said. “There was a lot of competition from girls we hadn’t seen before, it wasn’t girls we’ve been playing since we were eight years old.
“It would be awesome to get to play with that group of girls again.”
