By: Adam Morissette

Canadian Baseball Network

OTTAWA-What a week of baseball it was at the inaugural 21U Women Invitational at Mainland Field in Halifax, Nova Scotia!

After two semifinal games, including one that went 10 innings, and two medal games it was Québec who came away as the first gold medalists in the events history after defeating BC, 7-5 in the title game.

Ontario lost a heart-breaker to BC in a 10 innings semi-final contest but still had enough left in the tank to shutout host Nova Scotia, 3-0, in the bronze medal match-up.

Gold – Québec 7 BC 5

After a come-from-behind win in the semi final contest, Québec turned the trick again in the gold medal game as they scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 7-5 lead over BC and hung on to win the gold medal. BC opened the scoring in the first with a two-spot before Québec fought back with runs in the fourth and fifth to tie the score.

After BC scored three in the sixth to go ahead by three, Québec took advantage of three BC errors, two walks and a base hit to take a lead that they would not give up.  Gabrielle Lazzer (Otterburn Park, QC) was a table setter for her side as she went 2-for-2 with a double, scored two runs and fired a scoreless inning in the seventh to record the save. BC received six of their seven hits from three players as Taylor Kathler (Kelowna, BC), Katrine Eccles (White Rock, BC) and Veronica Wong (Nanaimo, BC) had two hits apiece at the top of their lineup.

Bronze - Ontario 3 Nova Scotia 0

After two hard fought semi final contest, Ontario and host Nova Scotia met for bronze and it was Ontario who shut out the hosts to claim the medal with a 3-0 win. Ontario received a tremendous effort on the mound from Marylena Florio (Woodbridge, ON) who fashioned a two-hit shutout in going the distance, including four strikeouts, to keep the Nova Scotia offence silent.

A passed ball with the bases loaded in the third brought in the game’s first run and Ontario would later score another in the frame when Emily Baxter (Oakville, ON) drew a free pass with the bases full. Baxter gave the Ontarians an insurance run in the fifth when her sac-fly scored Lindsay Wilcox (Waterdown, ON) who crossed home plate twice in the contest and also collected a pair of hits.

Semi- Québec 8 Nova Scotia 3

Any hope of Nova Scotia playing for gold on home turf was dashed as Québec struck for six runs in the top of the seventh as they erased a one-run deficit with two out in the inning to eventually come away with an 8-3 win. Back-to-back walks with two outs loaded the bases before two more walks brought in the tying a go ahead runs before an error scored two more and a two run single from Elyane Guevremont (Varennes, QC) put the visitors up by five.

Nova Scotia had received six and a third solid innings on the mound from starter Katie Hagen (Dartmouth, NS) who allowed two runs on six hits and a walk, while striking out six. She was spotted a three run lead in the fifth thanks to a Raelea Nickerson (Lower Sackville, NS) two runs triple who scored on Sam Shupe’s (New Waterford, NS) single. Québec received two shutout innings from Gabrielle Lazzer who was credited with the win and had two RBI on offence. Québec’s Pascale Jalbert (St-Honore, QC) went 3-for-3 falling a home run short of the cycle and scored two runs.

Semi-BC 3 Ontario 1

An instant classic as it took ten innings to decide this one with BC manufacturing two runs in the top of the 10th as they hung on to defeat Ontario, 3-1. Pitching was the name of the game in this one as BC’s Claire Eccles (White Rock, BC) tossed nine innings and did not allow an earned run as she scattered five runs and a walk to go along with nine strikeouts.

Ontario starter Tess Forman (Ottawa, ON) exited the game after just an inning and a third before Hailey Boyd (Port Dover, ON) came in and put up zeroes for seven innings.  The game went to extras with the score knotted at one, before Paige Hildebrandt’s (Edmonton, AB) fielder’s choice scored Alice Wong (Nanaimo, BC) with the go ahead run.

A Taylor Kathler base hit would bring in Marie Renneberg (Kelowna, BC) with an insurance run before Mary Duffield-Harding (Victoria, BC) shut the door in the bottom of the tenth.

Earlier in the day, Newfoundland & Labrador came away with a 15-0 win over crowd favourite, Guyana. For Guyana, a new baseball playing nation, the experience in Nova Scotia was one that will surely do wonders for the sport back home.

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