The Altona Angels brought home silver medals from Softball Manitoba’s first provincial championship of the season.

The Angels reeled off seven straight wins but then ran out of gas and fell 11-4 to the Boissevain Centennials in the gold medal game of the Provincial U11 A Championship at Buhler Park.

Altona head coach Marv Falk was thrilled with his team's performance this past weekend in Winnipeg.

“It felt really good. I knew we had a team that was ready to compete. We had a few girls that participated in the U11 A last year and we also had a couple of girls who played AA this year, so we were ready to go. We finished top eight last year, and I thought this year we had a team that could finish higher than last year.”

The Angels defeated Sunrise CU 13-0; outscored Kirkfield Westwood 12-9; downed Virden 9-2 and beat Varsity View 11-9 in pool play on Friday and Saturday.

Altona won its first three playoff games on Sunday.

The Angels edged Morden 10-9; defeated Macdonald Storm Grey 9-1 and then downed Macdonald Storm Blue 9-2 in the semifinals.

“The pitching was good,” noted coach Falk. “We relied on a couple of pitchers (Raegan Friesen & Sophie Fehr with support from Natalie Toews & Ain Kim) pretty heavily. They were only allowed to throw two innings per game, but we got them their two innings and they were able to keep us in those games. Our bats were doing what they needed to do in those three games Sunday. By the fourth game you could just tell, we had 11 girls, and they were tired. They battled but they were tired.”

The Centennials, who were also undefeated heading into the gold medal game, plated their maximum six runs in the top of the first and never looked back.

“Boissevain was really strong,” said coach Falk. “Their pitchers were good, and they were able to hit which we hadn’t seen a lot of teams hit off of our pitching which was good. That was awesome to see at U11 when girls are able to get hits off of pitches. That’s the big thing at U11 A. Our pitchers were putting it in there and we were just giving up hits. Our defense played well; they were finding holes.”

Coach Falk added that the experience is so memorable, and it was awesome for his players to medal at the provincials.

“I’ve had these girls since U9 and it’s been a lot of fun being able to coach that group of girls. They are extremely good athletes and good ball players. I look forward to working with them for a couple more years.”