Just like her older sister, Sydney Kells has a gold medal earned at the national softball championships. And just like Jenny, Sydney helped pitch the team to that colour of hardware.
Kells, a 14-year-old Fergus resident, earned gold as a pitcher and third baseman for the Mississauga Tigers peewee team. The win at nationals caps an action-packed season for Kells - a bronze medal while the Tigers played at the bantam level tournament in Whitby, gold at the Brampton Blazers tourney, gold at the USFA Mississauga Partners qualifying tournament (earning a bid for the USFA World Series in Panama City next year, and gold at the provincials.
"The team's goal this year was to win both provincials and nationals," Kells said. "It was pretty intense there. I'd played against Mississauga before and we would usually lose to them. Everything was on a whole new level here."
Having played in Guelph, Kitchener and Palmerston previously, Kells said she tried out for Mississauga and Oakville last fall, knowing there were limited spots on the squad. But once she made the team, Kells proved she belonged. In the national semi-finals against Delta (BC), she pitched three innings while giving up one run on one hit while striking out five. When the starting pitcher got hurt early in the finals against the Brantford Bobcats, Kells toed the rubber for four innings in the Tigers' 7-0 mercy win. She surrendered just one hit while whiffing six. That Mississauga handled the Bobcats was not a surprise, but winning via mercy was a small shocker.
"They had beat us twice in round-robin play, so we knew it was going to be a tough game," she said. "It was my first time at nationals and it was really intense. It took me a while to get into it - the Tigers placed fifth at nationals last year, and with only three new girls on the team this year there were higher expectations."
Kells admitted that it took some getting used to, but playing with those high expectations turned out to be a lot of fun for her. And judging by her work in the last two games of the season, it looks like she enjoys pitching in pressure situations.
"Pressure really doesn't bother me that much, and I think I pitch better when there's more pressure," she said. "I've been playing this game since I was six years old - my dad and I will go to the diamond after school and toss the ball around. I learned so much this year and I got a lot more out of playing than I did before."
While she's moving up to the bantam division next season, Kells plans on a return to Mississauga - why change something that's not broken?
"I found it all really exciting, and the fact that we expected to do well at provincials and nationals was a lot of fun for me," she said. "I can't wait to see what next year is like."