June 27, 2024
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Before the rains came, Team Canada doused any debate about who had the upper hand in Wednesday’s leadoff game of the P5 tournament.
Taking advantage of early errors by the opposing Team Colorado and then dialing into some high-quality at-bats, Canada posted a 13-3 victory on Red Rocks Field, with the game called because of weather in the top of the fifth inning. That was the frame where Canada sealed the result with five runs, and in fact had runners on second and third with no outs when the teams agreed to stop.
But the lead was built early as the offense put the ball in play and kept on the move as Team Colorado made three errors in the first two innings.
“I love the way we started today – we made some good adjustments and had a plan. We’ve got a lot of veterans who know how to run the bases, look for advantages, and that’s something we preach about quite a bit,” said Canada head coach Kaleigh Rafter.
Through the top of the third, Canada had a 6-1 lead, the last run coming off a solo home run by Kiana Jones. Colorado still had some fight left and scored twice in the bottom of the inning behind an RBI single from Kasidi Pickering and a run-scoring groundout by Reese Atwood to make it 6-3.
Canada responded with arguably the key swing of the game, a long two-out two-run homer from Callum Pilgrim that easily cleared the extended fence in dead centerfield. Psychologically, the distance of the blast had an impact, and it was a solid response after Colorado’s rally moment.
“First game of the event, we were all pretty excited. We’re ready to go for it, and it always feels good when things work out,” said Pilgrim, who is the head softball coach at Lindsey Wilson College in Kentucky, located about 100 miles south of Louisville. “We had a training camp for about two weeks earlier in June, and all of us hitters were excited to not have to face our pitchers anymore, and it was great to get out here, play a game and works some things out.”
“We’d challenged her to execute a certain type of swing. Callum put one hell of a swing on that pitch and drove it,” Rafter said. “Looking back, it probably would have been a ball, but she took a really well executed swing on it. That also allowed (pitcher) Morgan (Rackel) to settle in.”
In the fifth, Canada loaded the bases on two walks and a double before Grace Messmer launched a grand slam, and the scoring concluded with a solo home run by Kelsey Harshman.
These same two teams will square off again on Red Rocks Field at 6 p.m. Friday, June 28. Meanwhile, the rest of the P5 event (produced by Triple Crown Sports) will feature about 40 teams from the nation’s top club programs who will be in action through Saturday and also get a session in the new CSE Performance Lab.
