A whopping 32 girls fastball teams invade Goderich to deliver a mid-summer classic
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
By: Dan Ridsdale
Goderich Seahawks Girls Fastball program hosted their fifth annual Lions House League Tournament, the weekend of July 17-19 at Bannister Park, John O’Keefe Field and Goderich Public School.
This year, 32 teams attended the tournament, the largest to date, with teams travelling from throughout southwestern Ontario.
The tournament was categorised by four different age divisions of U11, U13, U15 and U17 with the hometown Seahawks being represented in each age category.
From the opening pitch on Friday afternoon at 1:45 p.m. until the final pitch just before 4 p.m. on Sunday, the diamonds in Goderich were abuzz with approximately 500 female youth plying their softball skills as well as enjoying what the town has to offer.
For those at Bannister Park, the Seahawk food booth was a busy spot all weekend as Jenni Arthur, and her many volunteers tempted everyone with the small of fried onions on the barbecue and tasty treats all weekend long.
In the U11 Division played at Goderich Public School, the cheering was constant and the local Seahawks played very hard in grabbing a win versus the Wyoming Lady Wranglers on Saturday morning to follow up a tough opening game 15-14 loss to the Mitchell Hornets.
The championship game on Sunday morning saw the Exeter Extremes walk-off the St. Marys Rockies in a back and forth 12-11 victory.
The U13 Division had two Seahawk teams participating with Team Lemon in Pool A and Team Lime in Pool B.
The Lemons and Limes played back to back on Friday over at O’Keefe Field to get the division rolling and the Lemons pounded the Mitchell Hornets 11-3 serving notice to the rest of their pool that they meant business.
The Limes proceeded to continue their season improvement with a 9-9 tie versus the Wingham Wildcats setting the stage for a tough contest first thing Saturday morning against a solid Elma Express ball club.
The Limes fell just short dropping a 15-12 contest. The Lemons, meanwhile, routed the Ayr Flamingos 16-4 to secure a semi-final berth on Sunday morning.
The Limes grabbed a huge victory (and potential Lemon/Lime semi-final) winning 11-4 over the South London Tigers.
Immediately following this excitement, the Lemons won a squeaker over Exeter 5-4 to go undefeated in Pool A.
However, the Limes missed the opportunity to play their Lime counterparts narrowly missing the cut on a tie-break formula to Wingham.
After narrowly beating Wingham, the Seahawks Lemon team came out strong versus a solid Elma Express with the Seahawks holding a good lead into the top half of the last inning.
However, the Express battled back to tie things up setting the stage for an incredibly exciting walk-off RBI Double by Chelsey Fritzley to secure the Lemon championship.
The U15 Division boasted a very solid field of teams with excellent pitching in both pools making it very tough to navigate through to championship Sunday.
The Seahawks had a difficult first two games and their Friday afternoon 5-4 loss to Exeter was a hard fought, well-played game.
On Saturday morning, the Seahawks battled a polished Chatham Golden Eagles club for most of the game until a late Chatham surge left the Seahawks at 0-2 after playing really good ball for both games.
The U15s finished strong by clobbering Mitchell 13-6 to finish third in their pool just behind the earlier Exeter loss.
In the U15 final, the St. Marys Rockies continued to ride their momentum defeating both unbeaten teams in Chatham and the Elma Express 8-6 to win the championship.
In the U17 Division, the local Seahawks had a strong opening game offensively, beating Wyoming 20-12 on Friday night.
However, the U17s were not up to the task on Saturday as the Merlin Mavericks were better in all phases of the diamond, leaving the Seahawks with the last game on Saturday night versus the Enniskillen Express to claim the fourth and final semi-final playoff spot.
That night, the Express had their way with another lackluster effort by the home-side sending them home for the weekend early.
In the U17 final, Elma jumped out to a comfortable lead, but the Pool A winners from Merlin kept chipping away to keep this game close.
In the end, the Elma Express were crowned champions with a 9-5 victory.
The tournament organisers want to thank the town’s recreation and parks staff, the many volunteers, the Goderich Lions Club and all the tournament sponsors for supporting the tournament.
The umpires who persevered throughout the entire weekend, battling the elements and lengthy time on the diamond, added a touch of professionalism and is a reason this tournament continues to be a success.
Stay tuned for the sixth annual Seahawks tournament next July 16-18, 2027.