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With a concentrated effort being made to re-introduce women鈥檚 softball into the Summer Olympics for Tokyo 2020, the best young players in the country who are gathered at Helmcken/Centennial Park in View Royal for the U-14 Girls鈥� Fast Pitch Canadian Championship Jamboree could very well be harbouring Olympian dreams by the time they reach their playing primes.
The players on the host Victoria Devils 2001 are showing they could be a part of that future, advancing to today鈥檚 Cup Division semifinals in the national U-14 tournament. The Devils, who placed third in the preliminary round-robin with a 5-1 record, defeated Delta Heat 2001 by a 10-3 count in the playoff round Saturday and will meet Surrey Storm 2001 this morning at 9:30. The winner of that game advances to the gold-medal final this afternoon at 3:30. The loser will play in a game at 1:30 p.m., with a chance to still move onto the final in the double-loss elimination playoff format.
The other semifinal in the Cup Division, today at 11:30 a.m., features the Ontario No. 1 Waterloo Ghosts playing the winner of a late-finishing Saturday game between Delta and the Oakville Angels of Ontario.
Meanwhile, the Victoria Devils 2002 placed fifth in the younger Plate Division preliminary round robin. The host squad then rallied for two playoff consolation-round victories Saturday, defeating Six Nations Orange from Ontario 5-2 and the Surrey Storm 8-7 to qualify for the Plate Division bronze-medal game this morning at 9.
There are 17 teams taking part in the national tournament.
Women鈥檚 softball was in four Summer Olympics, from Atlanta in 1996 to Beijing in 2008, with sa国际传媒 qualifying each time.
