They were perfect until the final game of the weekend.

The Steinbach Regional Secondary School watched Portage Collegiate plate two runs in the first inning, two more in the second and four in the third and that was too deep a hole to climb out of against the number one seed.

The Saints beat the SRSS 11-0 in five innings in the final of the Provincial High School Girls Fastpitch Championship in Boissevain on Saturday afternoon.

“We didn't give up,” said Sabres catcher Megan Kis. “It was looking tough but we kept positive. In the dugout we were cheering loud. Our goal this season was to beat them and we beat them two weekends ago in Neepawa so we beat them and we couldn't be happier. I wish it could have happened here.”

Steinbach Regional shutdown the Dauphin Clippers 11-0 and beat the Stonewall Rams 5-2 in the round robin on Friday.

On Saturday the Sabres downed Nellie McClung of Manitou 11-1 in the quarterfinals and beat the Vincent Massey Vikings of Brandon 10-4 in the semifinals.

“We had a very good start to the weekend,” said SRSS pitcher Lauren Thompson who entered the final in the fifth inning replacing starter Kori Gryba It ended with a loss but it was still an awesome learning experience for all of us.”

Saints pitcher Emily Smith, who was named the MVP of the provincials, was outstanding in the championship game as she held the Sabres to just one hit.

SRSS coach Lawney Penner says his fastpitch team saw their gas tank start to run dry.

“It's a long weekend. You play a lot of ball – you play a lot of intense ball with the best in the province and we ran out of steam a little bit. It's unfortunate, you want to give them our best game at the end and we just ran out of a little bit of steam and that happens.”

“We gave the provincial champions their only loss of the year, we won a tournament in Neepawa and we finished second in the province,” added Penner. “Nothing but heads up high to go home with.”

Kori Gryba, Jade Gryba and Janaya Goertzen of the Sabres were named to the All-Star team.