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Strikers strike gold at regional championship

The Abbotsford Strikers midget girls fastpitch team brought home the gold medal from the regional championships in Langley last week.
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The Abbotsford Strikers midget girls fastpitch team won gold at the regional tournament in Langley.

The Abbotsford Strikers midget girls fastpitch team brought home the gold medal from the regional championships in Langley last week.

The local under-19 squad clinched the title by beating Cloverdale via the mercy rule in the final.

Head coach Kim Konias noted that with just 10 girls on the roster, the Strikers require major contributions from every player in order to be successful. That's just what they got at regionals.

"I was so proud of those girls," Konias enthused. "It was a real team effort. They defended well, they pitched well, and they hit really, really well. It was an all-around performance by all of them."

The Strikers suffered their lone loss of the tournament to Cloverdale during preliminary-round action, but they were able to exact some revenge in the title game.

"Meeting them again in the final, that was pretty cool," Konias noted.

OUTLAWS HEATING UP

The Abbotsford Outlaws 95B midget squad is on a roll heading into the provincial championship tourney this week.

The local squad won the district title in mid-June, knocking off the Outlaws 94B team in the final – both teams earned provincial berths. They followed that up with a solid performance at the prestigious Canadian Open fastpitch championships in White Rock last week, posting a 5-2 record in the futures select division and making a run to the semifinals.

The Outlaws saw their gold medal hopes dashed with an 8-7 extra-innings loss to the eventual champion Surrey Storm 95, but coach Greg Reader was pleased with their performance.

"The group of girls we have this year really don't know the word 'quit,'" he noted. "We've had four games this season where we've been down seven runs or more, and come back and won all of those games. They work hard for each other as teammates.

"It's going to come down to who plays their best ball on the weekend (at provincials)."