Extra innings needed as UBCO claims softball title

Photo: Contributed

UBCO Heat women's softball team

The UBC Okanagan Heat are the Canadian Collegiate Softball Association champions.

Head Coach Joni Frei was ecstatic as she described how her team drew strength from two motivational proverbs on the road to winning their first Canadian Collegiate Softball Association championship.

The team has only been in the league since 2019 and didn’t get to play last year because of the pandemic.

Nevada Johnson drove a single up the middle and a pinch hitter scored in the bottom of the 9th inning, giving The Heat a 5-4 victory.

They needed two extra innings to get past St. Clair College, from Windsor, Ontario at High Noon Park Sunday.

It was 3-3 after 7 innings. St. Clair scored to make it 4-3 in the top of the 8th. UBCO was in the final out of the bottom of the 8th when they hit a pop fly and the fielder dropped the ball, allowing them to even the game at 4-4. They allowed no runs in the top of the 9th and won with the single in the bottom of the 9th.

Frei explained that at the beginning of the season she told the team the proverb about a man moving bricks from one pile to another. When he was asked what he was doing, he said he was building a castle--one brick at a time.

“So that’s kind of been the idea of the team this year, is just whatever it takes to put bricks down, and become a strong team.”

She also said during the game another motivation technique the team used came to fruition, in a sense. It’s the idea of Umbalakiki, where you take all your negative thoughts, doubts and anxieties and put them in a tree.

Frei said in the 3rd inning a leaf came floating down. “It landed right beside our dugout and I picked up this leaf and put it in my pocket because I didn’t want the girls to step on it. And every once and a while I’d glance down at this leaf. Then in the 6th inning, I thought, shoot, maybe I need to make sure everyone gets to walk by this leaf because it landed there for a reason. So, I took it out of my pocket and put it back there. And I kid you not, in the 7th inning and the 8th inning and in the 9th inning, while it was there, we just kept gaining momentum.”

It was a chilly and windy day, with a bit of rain but The Heat battled through the elements.

“What an unbelievable game! I’m so proud of what this team has just accomplished. In just a few years, Coach Joni Fei and her team have built this program into the best in the country. And to win this championship here at home is something really special. So glad I was here to witness history for UBCO,” said Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran, who was among the fans at High Noon Park for the final.

UBC Okanagan was named as the host for the Canadian Collegiate Softball Association championship back in April. This is the first time it has been played in B.C.