The Sandwich Sabres girls slo-pitch team is OFSAA bound and have been building towards this moment for three years. "We started after Covid and it was a really young team," said head coach Mike Trudell. "All grade 9's and 10's. It was a season we couldn't win a game. We weren't very good but we were talented and young."
Last year the squad took a big step forward and made it to the WECSSAA semi final. This spring the Sabres lost their first game of the season by a run before rattling off six straight wins to finish atop the WECSSAA County division. "Lost our first game but played well. Right away we knew we were pretty good."
The team was led by Katelyn MacNeill who batted .667 with 33 runs scored in 12 games. The shortstop and WECSSAA all-star was sick but still managed to hit a 3-run homer and go 1-for-3 in a 19-13 win in the final against Kingsville.
"She's fantastic. I could go on and on about her. She's a coach's dream. Does everything. Plays hard. Great talent. Great leader." Trudell said.
MacNeill played in Wednesday afternoon's all star game which saw Trudell's blue team lost 11-9 to the red team.
The Sabres practiced this week to get ready for OFSAA Monday in Hamilton. Sandwich is 11-2 heading in with nine of their 15 players participating in tournament games with the club teams this weekend before heading to steel city for their opener.
"My message is going to be, play with confidence knowing they're one of the best teams out there," Trudell said. "We're at our best when we're relaxed. Aggresive on the base paths, swing at strikes. Pretty basic baseball stuff. When we do that we're hard to beat."
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