The Steinbach Regional Secondary School's fastpitch team is going to the Provincials for the fourth year in a row.

The Sabres defeated the Landmark 96'ers 7-0 in the Zone 13 final last Wednesday at A.D. Penner Park in Steinbach.

"We're really proud of the girls," said SRSS co-coach Mandy Thiessen. "Landmark has a really good team. They hit every inning. The key for us was we made no mistakes in that game. We were solid defensively and one through nine in our order were hitting."

The Sabres were perfect in the round robin.

Steinbach Regional defeated Edward Schreyer School of Beausejour 13-3, downed Landmark 4-1 and blanked Ste. Anne 15-0.

"They've done a really good job of getting to know each other and for the older girls who have kind of taken in the younger girls," said Thiessen. "That's been huge for us trying to gel as a team. These girls are all from different fastball backgrounds so it's great that they all get to know each other through high school ball."

The Sabres qualified for the final by outscoring Green Valley 15-12 in the semis.

"Games like that happen," remarked Thiessen. "You have to be prepared for that. I think our girls battled through it really well. It was really just one bad inning. We made a bunch of errors in the fifth inning but we bounced back from that. We switched a couple of players in and we ended up coming back that inning. We had a couple of strikeouts at the end and came back offensively."

Gina Broesky and and Morgan Friesen combined on a three-hit shutout and Izzy Penner homered in the five-inning final against the 96'ers.

"The game was a lot closer than the score showed," noted Thiessen. "It was scoreless until the third inning. It was really intense and everyone contributed offensively. We were solid."

The 2018 Provincial High School Fastpitch Championship takes place this Friday and Saturday in Winkler.

"It's definitely going to be tough for us," Thiessen admitted. "We have to work together as a team and make as few mistakes as possible. The way we've been hitting, we've been tiring out pitchers with our offensive battles, so I think that's how we're going to beat good teams at the Provincials."

Mandy Thiessen and Meagan Klassen, who both played three seasons of high school ball for the Sabres, have taken on the co-coaching duties for the fastpitch team this season replacing long-time head coach Lawney Penner.

Thiessen had spent six years and Klassen five in the SRSS dugout as assistant coaches for Penner prior to this season.

"It's obviously huge shoes to fill," pointed out Thiessen. "Lawney is a fantastic coach. He's been the guy who has been able to rally the girls together. It's a lot different going from kind of throwing your two cents in, to making the final decisions. It's definitely been a different kind of season for Meagan and I and we're only going to grow from here as coaches and athletes as well."