CARNDUFF — While Carnduff was celebrating its 120th birthday, the Carnduff Southeast Steelers were celebrating a provincial championship.
The Steelers are a women’s softball team, and they were hosts to Saskatchewan’s Provincial Championship on the weekend of July 4 to 6. It was coincidentally the same weekend as their town was holding its homecoming. The tournament had originally been scheduled for a couple of weeks later, but the organizers of the upcoming Canadian Championships wanted to hold their tournament a few weeks earlier than scheduled to accommodate all the ladies who were returning to school in the fall.
That worked out well. The provincials became part of the homecoming festivities.
Four teams participated in the tournament – the Steelers and three teams from Saskatoon, the Tigers, the Stealth and the Prairie Pirates.
The Steelers got off to a great start, beating the Prairie Pirates 3-1 on Friday. The next day, they faced the Tigers and were dominant, coming out on top 9-3. Later that day, they played their final game of the round robin tournament, with the Stealth as their opponents. It was a nail-biter, with the lead going back and forth. After the seven innings were completed, the Steelers were victorious, edging out the Stealth by a 3-2 score. They finished the round-robin portion of the tournament undefeated, giving them an automatic berth into Sunday’s championship game.
The Stealth and the Pirates played in the semi-final game to determine the Steelers opponents. The Stealth won the game convincingly, 11-0. That set up a rematch of the previous evening’s game.
In front of 200 fans, the Stealth jumped out to an early lead, scoring a couple of runs off starting pitcher, Jorde Chartrand. Chartrand settled down, pitching a complete game. The offence came alive and for the second time in the tournament, the Steelers were on the right side of a 9-3 score.
That crowned them as Saskatchewan’s best women’s team.
Coach Allan Hubbard, in reflecting upon his team’s success, said, “It was a good weekend…everybody came to play.”
The Steelers now head off to Saskatoon, along with the three other teams that were in the provincial tournament, where they will join teams from Alberta, Ontario and Quebec to battle for the Canadian championship. That will take place from July 30 to Aug. 3.
