The Northlands Parkway Nighthawks won the Zone 4 High School fastpitch championship banner for the first time Wednesday in Portage la Prairie.

Brooklyn Friesen homered; Kendall Martens tripled, and Cadence Martens doubled in the Nighthawks’ 11-4 victory over the Morden Thunder in the final of the league tournament.

Addison Nickel got the start for NPC and earned the victory.

Taylor Wall got the win as Northlands Parkway downed the Miller Aces 13-3 in the semifinals.

“As a team, we have worked so hard all year,” said Nighthawks coach Nicole Froese. “We have dealt with a ton of injuries, and we had no idea if it would work out. We finished first in the league and at the Zone tournament we just took it one out at a time. For all the hard work to pay off, it just meant a lot.”

Coach Froese said the final with Morden was tough.

“They are an amazing team. They’re pitchers are really strong and as Kerwin (coach Froese) and I told the girls, we have to come out strong because if we get behind this is a team that will be hard to get back from. Our first inning we scored four runs and in the second inning we scored five runs. We got a few more later on in the game but those first two strong innings really set the pace for what really ended up being a strong win.”

The Nighthawks will represent Zone 4 at the Provincials next week in Portage la Prairie.

NPC qualified for last year's provincials in Winnipeg as a wildcard.

Northlands Parkway defeated the host Dakota Lancers and the Neelin Spartans in pool play and then lost 4-3 to Prairie Mountain in the quarterfinals.

“We got a little bit of a taste of what to expect last year,” said coach Froese. “We’re ready to go and make it a little bit farther this year. We have a pretty strong team and we’re excited for our young team to show all the other teams what we have to offer.”