It was a golden weekend in Cowichan for a trio of players from the Richmond 2003B Islanders.
Kaitlyn Eng, Shae Sever and Taryn Hill helped Zone 5 (Vancouver-Coastal) capture gold in the girls softball competition at the B.C. Summer Games.
The girls have grown up together coming through Richmond Girls Softball and had key roles in Vancouver-Coastal’s run to the top of the podium. Hill was solid at first base. The speedy Eng played left field and was the team’s lead-off batter, while Sever covered right field when not throwing from the mound.
The Zone 5 team started strong against an outmatched team from the Kootenays. After only managing one hit in the early going, the team adjusted to the Zone 1 pitching on their way to an easy win.
Games became more challenging for the rest of the round-robin portion of the competition. Victories over the Fraser Valley (9-2) and Fraser River (5-3) zones made up for a 10-1 loss to the Vancouver Island-Central Coast team. The 3-1 record earned the No. 2 seed for the playoff round.
Facing Fraser Valley for the second time in the semi-finals, a tight game saw Zone 5 clinging to a 1-0 lead until the bottom of the fourth when the girls pulled away en route to a 5-0 win.
In the gold medal game, a strong Thompson-Okanagan (Zone 2) team went ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the second and held the lead until the 4th when a run scored on a walk to tie the game. The Coastal bats came alive in a big way in the sixth — producing three doubles, two singles and six runs to secure the victory.
