The Southeast SuperNovas under-16 girls’ softball team, based out of Carlyle, won the silver medal at the Western Canadian Softball Championships earlier this month in Biggar.
The team won provincial bronze in early July and thus qualified for westerns.
Westerns featured teams from Prince George and Nanaimo in B.C, Edmonton and Lloydminster in Alberta, Brandon and Stonewall in Manitoba, and three teams from Saskatchewan: the SuperNovas, the Tisdale River Dogs and the host Biggar Nationals.
The SuperNovas are composed of girls from around the southeast corner of Saskatchewan. They include Madison Mansfield from Wawota, Katelyn Desjarlais from White Bear, Kiera Rutten from Alameda, Kayzee Ferber from Lampman, Mya Waloshin and Tiana Seeman from Estevan, and Trystan Barta, Kyla Fisher, Taris Rae, Kendra Schultz and Erica Wilson from Carlyle.
The team also picked up a couple of girls from the Unity Panthers, Makayla Bakken and Hunter Pewapsconias, for Westerns. Coaches were Larrie Rae and Autumn Barta of Carlyle and Carri-lee Rutten of Alameda.
The manager is Steve Schultz.
The SuperNovas, who finished fourth at westerns the previous two years, went 4-2 in the round robin to start the tournament.
That meant a fourth place finish after the round robin, but good enough for a spot in the elimination game pitting the third and fourth place teams. That 3-4 game put them up against the Interlake Phillies from Stonewall and the SuperNovas defeated the Phillies 12-2 in four innings.
This win moved them into a semifinal versus the Prince George Thunderbirds. The Novas had managed to beat the Thunderbirds early in the round robin and again they came out on fire. Great pitching, timely hits and top-notch defensive play helped the SuperNovas win 6-2 in a full seven-inning game. The Novas moved onto the final versus the Westman Magic from Brandon.
The SuperNovas run came to an end in a 9-1 loss to the Magic.
“To dominate teams from cities and big towns with thousands of more people and thus much larger pools to pick players from was quite a big deal to this team and shows not only the talent of our local ball players but just how hard they work to get there,” Schultz said in a write-up. “In fact, the gold medal final was only the Novas’ 23rd game of the season as a team.”
Prince George had more than 90 games this year.
It left the ‘Novas feeling even better about what they were able to accomplish this year.
