On May 31 and June 1, the Cache Creek Chaos U13 Girls’ team spent their second weekend in a row in the Okanagan.
This time they were competing in the Kelowna Spring Sizzle tournament, held at High Noon Park. Ten teams competed in the tournament, with many being from the City of Kelowna. The weather was perfect for softball, as temperatures hit the mid 20s.
The Chaos started their tournament at 8 a.m. on Saturday on a high note for the girls, as they opened up with a tight 6–2 win over one of the home Kelowna Heat teams. The second game, which took place at noon, was a tough outing which ended in an 11–2 loss to the Vernon Vortex. The last game of the day was a very close game that found the Chaos on the short side of another Kelowna Heat team. The score was 14–13 for Kelowna.
Sunday action on the diamond started at 8 a.m. The Chaos had one last round robin game to play, and it was against another team from the Okanagan, the Penticton Power. It took the final bats, but Cache Creek narrowly defeated Penticton 9–8. This put the Chaos in sixth place out of 10 after round robin play, with the top six teams making the playoffs.
Their next match-up was against the third-seeded Kelowna Heat team that they had started the tournament against on Saturday. This second match-up with Kelowna was not as close, as everything from hitting to fielding to batting came together for the Chaos. The final score in this game was 12–5 for Cache Creek.
This win put them in the semi-finals against the number one-seeded Enderby Storm. Enderby came fast out of the gate in this game, and defeated the Chaos 14–4.
The loss to Enderby put Cache Creek in the bronze medal game against the Penticton Power. They had defeated Penticton earlier in the day, but the Power would get their revenge in this game, winning 15–10 and taking home the bronze.
The girls were pretty tired after the bronze medal game, as they had played four games in a row on Sunday. Fourth place is a very impressive showing against some of the toughest competition to come from the Okanagan, however, and the Chaos have shown they are right there with these teams as far as competition goes. In three weeks, between tournaments and league games, they have shown so much improvement. They played a total of 20 ball games in those three weeks.
Now the Cache Creek Chaos prepare for what they have worked so hard for this season. On the weekend of June 20–22 the Chaos travel to Sicamous for the U13 regional tournament, where they will be playing some of the top teams from the B.C. Interior. They’ve already played some of these teams this season, which will help them know the type of competition they will see in Sicamous. Good luck going for the gold, Chaos.
