** This story has been updated
The White Rock Renegades 05A team brought home the bronze medal from the U17 Girls Canadian Fastpitch Championships.
The squad was one of two Renegades teams at the tournament in Montreal, along with a 06 team that finished out of the medal standings.
In playoff action on Sunday (Aug. 21), the 05 Renegades lost 2-1 to Fraser Valley Fusion 06 and 5-0 to Langford Lightning 05, ending hopes of a Canadian championship.
Langford Lightning 05 went on to win the title.
The tournament began on Wednesday, Aug. 17, with both White Rock teams earning victories. The 2005-born Renegades opened with a convincing 7-0 shutout against Ontario’s Halton Hawks, while the 2006s scored a narrow 5-4 win over Manitoba’s Central Energy.
The two Renegade teams were B.C.’s fourth and fifth seeds heading into the tournament.
Against Halton Wednesday morning, the Renegades ‘05 scored all seven of their runs in the third and fourth innings, before the mercy rule was invoked in the fifth frame.
Brynn Gallamore earned the win in the pitcher’s circle, striking out five batters, while walking just one and allowing a single base hit. At the plate, Gallamore also tied for the team-lead with two hits; Kennedy Patrick also had two hits in the win.
The ’05s don’t play again today (Wednesday), but they have two games scheduled for Thursday – against Equipe Quebec U17 in the morning and against Calgary Kaizen U17 Black in the afternoon.
The White Rock Renegades ‘06, meanwhile, defeated their Manitoba opponents thanks to some late-game offence. The game was scoreless after four innings, before the Renegades scored two runs in the fifth and three more in the top of the sixth. Central Energy scored once in the bottom of the fifth inning themselves, and added three in the bottom half of the sixth frame, but couldn’t get the tying run across the plate. Neither teams scored in the seventh and final inning, to give the B.C. crew a 5-4 victory.
White Rock’s Makaila Schneider led the offence with three hits and a run scored, while Sydney Morris had two hits and two runs-batted-in.
Emma Walker and Paige Fennell shared pitching duties for the Renegades, with Walker striking out four in five innigns of work, and Fennell striking out four in just innings of relief.
This year is the first since 2019 that national championships have been played across the country. Tournaments in 2020 and ‘21 were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The events that are back and on the field are super exciting,” said Renegades president Greg Timm, whose organizing committee also hosted men’s and women’s slo-pitch national championships at Softball City two weeks ago.
“There’s a huge buzz in the park. People are really excited to be back out there.”
U15 Nationals
Earlier this month, the White Rock Renegades ‘07 finished fifth at U15 nationals, which were held Aug. 3-7 in Saskatoon.
The championship was won by the Cloverdale Fury ’07s, who defeated the Surrey Storm in the gold-medal game.
with a file from Tom Zillich
nick.greenizan@peacearchnews.com
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