Everyone on Humber's softball team pitched in to reach the pinnacle they reached this year. Coach Duaine Bowles says the 19 players turned the team around this season to a provincial powerhouse.
But, they fell short of a gold medal.
The Humber women’s softball team captured its third silver medal at the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) finals falling to the Durham Lords 8-0 on Oct. 19 at Babcock Field in Oshawa. The team ranked second in the country when it arrived at the final OCAA game with a record of 19-5 in the regular season.
Shade Hansen, Humber Hawks softball pitcher, said even though the team tried to have fun, stress was still in the back of their minds.
“Especially in provincials, that’s what gets you to the next nationals,” Hansen said.
From the start, Michaela Brown, a second-year pitcher, held the Durham Lords scoreless for the first inning.
The Lords would be too tall of a task for the Hawks as they scored two runs, bringing in Zoe Scougall to pitch by the end of the second.
Scougall said her journey this season has been quite rocky after an ongoing shoulder injury in last year’s OCAA championship.
“We’ve been able to work with athletic therapy to kind of help, but there's some things that we can’t exactly reverse,” she said.
“Of course, I want to pitch as much as possible but there are a lot of times where I really had to listen to my body, and not listen to my head as much,” Scougall said.
She also was named the OCAA championship All-Star and Scougall said she felt grateful for the recognition.
“I was shocked honestly, there was really no thought in my head of it being me, so when I heard my name I was like, ‘whoa, that’s crazy,’” she said.
This award recognizes a player's play in the OCAA championship during this tournament.
Over the next two innings, Durham would wrack up another five runs making the score 7-0.
At the top of the fifth Hansen, a second-year pitcher, was brought in to grab some runs for the Hawks.
She kept them scoreless during her first inning of play, but Humber couldn’t come back.
Before closing it up at the top of the seventh, the Lords gained another run making the final score 8-0.
Hansen said although seeing that score is quite upsetting for anyone to look at, getting a silver medal is still a big accomplishment.
Bowles, in his eighth season, said the team is a complete 180 compared to last year.
“It got to a point where they just didn’t accept anything less, and they weren’t going to. They just, they were so tough this year,” Bowles said.
“It was so incredible to watch because the process has taken us quite a while to get to where we are right now, but getting there, like the payoff was just incredible,” he said.
Bowles said every player on the roster had a moment throughout the season to help them get to this point, and he sees a bright future because of this.
Shade Hansen, a second-year pitcher on Humber's softball team, had one of these moments earlier in the season when she recorded the second no-hitter of her career against the Lambton Lions on Sept. 14.
He said the goal leading up to next season is to figure out how to take the number one spot in the country.
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