The Lloydminster Liners painted an orange wave in winning three provincial softball championships on the same July weekend.
While the U17 and U11 teams were victorious in rain-shortened tournaments at home in Lloyd, the U13 Liners went to Blackfalds to capture their Softball Alberta gold medals.
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In winning the provincial U13 B girls’ championship, the Liners posted a 5-1 record, including a 2-0 slate on championship Sunday.
The Lloyd girls defeated Edmonton’s River City Hornets 13-6 in the final, which was shortened to five innings because of the mercy rule.
“The girls put it all together at the right time,” said U13 Liners head coach Cory Dubyk. “We had a strong team all year.”
At the provincial championship tournament, they overcame any errors or hitting droughts that might have curtailed them previously, Dubyk said about his veteran-laden team, consisting of 10 second-year players and two others in their first season of U13 ball.
The past four years, Dubyk has coached the core group of U13 Liners, including his daughter Brielle from her first U11 season to her final year of U13 this season.
“They’ve been a part of the provincial process for four years and finally got some success,” he said.
Lloydminster capitalized on a River City pitching change, breaking open a close game with five runs in the third inning and four runs in each of the final two innings.
Liners’ pitchers Brielle Dubyk and Payton Heck both limited their opponents to just three runs each.
In the post-game photos, the smiles on the faces of the Lloyd girls would indicate just how much they appreciated the gold medals, capping a long and rewarding season.
“We played a ton of ball this season,” said coach Dubyk, tracking a year that began the week before May long weekend.
The Liners participated in three provincial tiering weekends in Red Deer, Medicine Hat and Lloydminster, along with tournaments in Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Lloyd.
“In total, we played around 43 or 44 games in about nine weeks,” Dubyk said. “A lot of ball.”
For the Lloyd parents, that schedule sometimes meant Fridays off work to enable those extended road trips.
For the girls, those excursions were a big part of the fun.
“Yeah, for sure, they like the swimming pools at the hotels and hanging out with the girls,” said Dubyk, whose coaching staff included assistant coaches TJ Heck, Dean Phipps and Coralee Hohne.
“We actually had a good schedule for (game) times this year, too, where the girls could do that bonding in the hotel rooms.”
While the Liners’ teams hosting provincials in Lloyd ran into rain complications on their championship Sunday, the U13 club dodged that bullet.
“It wasn’t too bad,” Dubyk said. “We woke up Sunday morning and the diamonds were pretty wet. We were supposed to start at 9:15 and I think we started at about 11:30. The diamonds actually dried pretty quick.
“The 17s and the 11s, both playing here in Lloyd, they ended up not being able to play at all on Sunday.”
With favourable records up to that point, however, both of those Lloyd teams were recognized as Softball Alberta champions.
U17 LINERS MAKE MARK AT CANADA CUP
The U17 A Liners went right back to work and participated in the Canada Cup this past week at Surrey, B.C.
At that multi-level national event, Lloydminster played 10 games in six days in the Showcase Gold tournament, posting a 7-3 record before losing 2-0 to the Richmond (B.C.) Islanders in Saturday’s playoffs.
The Liners won their first four games of the July 7-13 tournament and had seven victories after eight games.
Lloyd’s U17 results at the Canada Cup were:
Liners 10 Richmond Islanders 3
Liners 7 TriCity Titans 3
Liners 10 Calgary Kaizen 0
Liners 7 Lacombe Selects 0
Ridge Meadows Pride 1 Liners 0
Liners 4 Delta Inferno 2
Liners 10 Richmond Islanders 1
Liners 11 White Rock Renegades 5
Ridge Meadows Pride 10 Liners 4
Richmond Islanders 2 Liners 0
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