The 2014 season may have come to an end for the Davidson Red Sox peewee girls softball team with a 2-2 split in round-robin action at Provincials late last month in Regina, but their coach believes it could be the start of some good ball in town for future years.

Jason Shaw, who coaches the Red Sox with Kendall Wightman, said the 15 girls who played baseball this year have all improved skill-wise since camp first broke in April. He said finishing the season in a round-robin loss at Provincials isn’t what they hoped for, but the important thing is the players were able to come together and showcase the skills they’ve learned over the course of the year.

“We went into provincials, into that tournament, with the same kind of philosophy (that) all the girls got to play and nobody sat on the bench,” said Shaw. “Some girls during the year played infield and outfield and got a chance to play different positions. In this (tournament) we focused a bit more on one or two positions, but everybody batted and everybody got to play the field. We wanted to win, but as a team. We were going to win as a team.”

The Red Sox began the June 27 to 29 Provincials tournament in Regina with a 6-4 loss to Weyburn in a hard-fought game that could have gone either way considering the amount of stranded runners left on base by Davidson. The Sox quickly put the loss behind them when they came back onto the field later that first day to hit a 12-4 win over Southey.

The second day started the way the first day ended with the Red Sox running 12-3 over Regina, which put them one win away from securing a berth in playoff competition. The girls took the field against Carlyle that afternoon, but their bats went cold and a four-run inning for the opposition resulting in an eventual 7-0 defeat ended any hopes of advancing.

“We were a little bit rusty, but I thought our pitching was really good on the weekend,” said Shaw, noting league playoffs were canceled the weekend before due to rain. “Our defence was pretty good. We made a couple mistakes along the way, but nothing too big. We just didn’t hit like we normally would. Especially in that Carlyle game we needed a couple hits to get us going, (but) their pitching was strong (and) we just didn’t hit like we could have.”

To read more please see the July 7 print edition of The Davidson Leader.