Squirt Hawks headed for World Series of fastpitch Lone Canuck entry in tourney leaves for Florida this Friday

The Halton Hills Hawks are set to play host to the 10th-annual youth fastpitch tournament this weekend, featuring 46 teams, but one of their own squads will have to take a pass on this year's event for patriotic reasons. The squirt Hawks depart this Friday for Panama City, Fla. and the week-long USFA World Series of Fastpitch Championships in the 12-and-under girls' division. There'll be 42 teams in their division, which begins with round-robin play, and the Halton Hills side, ranked among the top three clubs in this country, will be the lone Canadian representative for that age group. Qualifying for the tournament began last year with 863 teams vying for a berth in the World Series finals. "Every bit of Canadian paraphernalia we can get our hands on, we'll be bringing with us," said Hawks' coach Dave Holmes. "This is as big as it gets in North America for fastpitch, with all the best teams in it. It's amazing that a team from Halton Hills will be going up against teams like Mexico, Los Angeles, Chicago, Georgia and Texas. Four years this team has been together as a group with this eventual goal in mind." By winning five tournaments last year, the Hawks qualified for the USFA tourney and they've been playing teams two and three years older than they are this spring in order to get used to the larger diamond dimensions they'll play on in Panama City. The team has an 8-1 record in the Peel/Halton league this year, giving up just 15 runs overall in those contests, boasting depth at all positions. "It sounds like a cliché, I know, but in all honesty we really don't have any superstars, just an all-around, consistent team effort," Holmes added. "We have a solid core of four starting pitchers and anybody on any night can come through with the offence we need. We beat Guelph 7-2 (last week) and our five through-nine hitters were either 3-for-3 or 2for-2 that night." After the squirts return from the Sunshine State, they'll still be busy with the Peel/Halton league finals and the provincial championships Aug. 18-20 in Whitby.

After placing third at a novice tournament in Chatham this past weekend, the Halton Hills Hawks are tuned up for next week's USFA World Series in Florida, where they'll play in the squirt division. Members of the team (forefront, from left) are: Bat girl Trinity Presswood. Second row: Tearney Johnston-Jones, Cassie Lloyd, Maddison Presswood, Kendra Hole. Third row: Chantal Prevost, Jaime Vieira, Emily Brownhill, Alyssa Page, Maddie Mayberry, Brittany Brown, Abbey O'Keefe. Back row: Dave Kerr, Art Vieira, Dave Lloyd, Ian McLaughlin.