INSIDE THE PARK: Strong defence will define U14 Magic

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This article was published 23/05/2017 (2537 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The under-14 Westman Magic are hoping that a team that laughs together can learn to win together.

Head coach Jason Slator said his team — comprised of nine veterans and three rookies to the age group — is unusually close.

“We have a real cohesive group of girls who like being together,” Slator said. “Hopefully that translates into some success on the field. I think that’s probably our biggest asset; everyone enjoys being here and being together and working to get positive results in the end.”

The Magic play a 22-game regular season in the Manitoba Ladies Super Softball League, with nearly that many extra games as well.

They will take part in four tournaments this season, in Regina (June 9-11), Winnipeg (June 17-19), Mankato, Minn. (June 30 – July 2) and the ‘A’ provincials in Brandon from July 21 to 23.

The top five teams at the provincial tournament will earn either a spot at westerns or nationals.

“We’re building towards provincials and we’ll see what happens from there,” Slator said.

The team has four pitchers, ace Cassie Crerar and Rylee Slator, as well as rookies Halle Kachur and Kate-Leigh Heapy.

They are backed up by a group that has done a good job of avoiding errors this season.

“I think our defence has been really good,” Slator said. “I’ve been really impressed with it and our hitting is starting to catch up. That’s one thing that Brandon lacks, is an indoor facility during the winter, so it takes it takes a bit of time to catch up with our hitting. But I’m really happy with how our defence has been. I think that’s probably our strongest suit.”

Catcher Jasmine Horwood leads the way defensively with her strong arm, picking off three runners in one game on Monday.

“If you can keep their base runners close, that really helps everybody else out. She would be one of the ones we rely on to make sure everybody doesn’t take liberties with us and keeps them honest.”

Offensively, Breelyn Cloet will lead the way, with Kyra Black also a strong contributor. But the Magic’s offence is built with a small-ball approach.

“We just have kids who put the ball in play and make contact,” Slator said. “We don’t have any home run smashers; we just have kids who can put the ball in play and run around the bases.”

When they do get on, Magic base runners are aggressive, stealing whenever they can and not being afraid to push for an extra base after putting the ball in play.

“That’s something we’ve really been working on the last couple of games and something that we stressed (Monday),” Slator said. “We really want to attack those extra bases. If we can get extra bases, it just puts more pressure on them to maybe panic and hopefully we score.”

The Magic are 4-4 in league play, including a 6-5 victory over the Smitty’s Terminators on May 14. While Smitty’s came back to rout them in the back end of the doubleheader, Slator said it was an important win for his team against the perennial powerhouse program.

“They’re the team to beat and we got a split with them last weekend,” Slator said. “I think we kind of surprised them. That was a real confidence booster for us to know that we can compete with anybody if we play well. We were the benefactors of some errors on their part but that’s all part of forcing them to make errors as well.

“I’m very happy with where we’re at right now and hopefully we continue to grow.”

Perry Bergson is the Brandon Sun’s baseball and softball reporter.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson