Fastpitch has championship hopes

This past weekend promised good action for Wilfrid Laurier University’s women’s fastpitch team, but it didn’t promise good weather.

The squad fought an ongoing rainstorm and capitalized on two of three games, defeating the Windsor Lancers in both meetings, 10-4 and 16-1.

The lone loss came against the Western Mustangs on Sunday afternoon in a wet 14-1 deficit.

With the two wins, the Golden Hawks sit in second place behind the Mustangs heading into the Ontario University Athletics’ (OUA) championship weekend in London.

The rain and heavy wind conditions proved to be a challenge as each team battled to stay focused.

“It was hard staying in the game [against Western],” commented captain Jenna Kelly. “Once we were down in the first inning it was hard to stay in it with the weather.”

“We were down by a lot and not really in it. It was hard to stay focused.”

The Golden Hawks capitalized quickly against Windsor on Saturday afternoon as the teams played in winds that reached over 33km/h, but couldn’t get past the intimidation of the first place Mustangs.

“I think [the girls] came with a different mindset,” said Matt Allen, associate coach for the Golden Hawks. “Western is always at the top of the league and I think [we] came with a different intimidation mindset that we haven’t had in the past.

“They beat themselves mentally before we stepped onto the field.”

Laurier gave up six runs in the first inning Sunday and couldn’t regain their confidence.

The game continued as the Hawks battled for their lone run, scored by Jeannine Chen in the bottom of the third.

Kelly recorded the run-batted-in during the inning.

Western saw busy action from many players, including catcher Leslie Hanson, who recorded two triples, three RBI and scored twice.

Five other Mustang members recorded similar statistics.

“We brought our bats and got some good swings in,” said Western head coach Pete Lemon. “It was a good game for us.”

The game ended after only four innings.

Despite the loss, the lady Hawks sit in second place with a 14-7 record. Allen sees confidence in the strong Laurier team.

“We’re peaking at the right times. We beat Windsor for the second-place game and we’ll try to ride the momentum from yesterday and two weeks ago into the next weekend,” said Allen.

The team plays Friday and Saturday at Western for all the marbles.