The timing was just right for Carey Leigh-Thomas.
Exactly one week after helping Canada's women's softball national team win the bronze medal at the International Softball Federation world championship in Surrey - Carey Leigh-Thomas was back on a ball field, this time in Prince George, helping the Alexis Red Nation Jets capture a fourth-straight senior women's title at the Canadian Native Fastball Championships.
The 23-year-old shortstop from Six Nations, Ont., and her Alberta-based team rode the one-hit pitching of Courtney Auger to a 10-0 mercy-rule-shortened five-inning win over the Curve Lake Nimkee of Ontario in Sunday's women's final at Chuck Cawdell Field.
"I love coming back to this team just because I love it when all of our nations can come together to play the sport that I grew up loving," said Leigh-Thomas. "I have a three-year-old daughter and seeing all the younger generations running around, here I want to be a good role model for them.
"Canada hadn't won a medal since 2010 so it was a big deal that we came in third."
Leigh-Thomas won the title with the Jets last year in Winnipeg but was unable to answer the call in 2014, when she was playing for Canada in The Netherlands at the ISF world finals.
Earlier this summer the national team went on a 10-day tour in Japan and played a series of pro teams before they went to the World Cup two weeks ago in Oklahoma City, where Canada placed fifth. Softball is not an Olympic sport this time, otherwise Leigh-Thomas would be going to Rio.
For pitcher Auger, Sunday's was her fourth national title with Red Nation and winning never gets old for the Edmonton resident.
"This is just such a good group of girls - everybody knew what to do and what their role was," said Auger, who split the pitching load equally with Jenna Tanner. "We never stopped playing as a team, we all played amazing Every year the teams are getting tougher, looking for that Number 1 spot."
Red Nation went undefeated in five games, taking the shortest route possible to the title. Not so for Curve Lake. The Nimkees lost their tournament-opener Friday to Sailish and had to go the backdoor route. The final was their fifth game of the day Sunday and Nimkees pitcher Mallory Rose was feeling the fatigue in her legs. She gave up four hits and walked two in the second inning and Red Nation jumped ahead 4-0. They added four more in the fourth and got one more run in the fifth to enact the 10-run deficit mercy rule.
Curve Lake is a 90-minute drive northeast of Toronto and the long trip to Prince George for their first native nationals was well worth it for the Nimkees, who played eight games in less than three days. They beat Laquette Construction Stars of Mallard, Man., 6-2 Sunday afternoon to advance to the final. Lacquette, whose catcher, Wendy Potskin, is from Prince George, finished third.
In the master women's final, the Westbank Jewels defeated the KoKo QTs of Fort Qu'Appelle, Sask., 7-6.
