Palmerston Marlins U14 Novice team started their softball season off on a high note.
With a loss in the semi-finals at the Halton Hawks tournament May 23-24 in Georgetown the team has an early season top four ranking in the Provincial Women Softball Association.
The local rep team is made up of 12 girls from surrounding minor ball clubs who chose the competitive stream of the sport and travel to Palmerston to play under the 22-year-old Palmerston Marlins banner.
Of these 12 girls, it is a fairly even split of 2001 and 2002’s which makes competing against city teams a challenge as most centres are able to field a major and minor age team in each division.
“We just have to work harder and concentrate on the technical side of the sport for now, our team will mature in the game aspect as the season progresses,” stated coach Kelly Culp.
The Palmerston team started the tournament Friday night, with a 10-0 loss to the Oakville ‘01’s, but their bats came alive all day Saturday and they put three wins on the score board against Richmond Hill Ravens, Whitby Eagles and ended the day sending the highly-ranked Mississauga North Tigers ‘01 home in a quarter final game.
Sunday morning saw the Marlins face the Oakville Angels ‘01 team again in the semi-finals, however this team was too much to face for the injury-riddled Marlins. The players and coaches were satisfied with the strong finish at their first tournament where all but one of Ontario’s top ranked U14 teams attended.
