The Steinbach Regional Secondary School captured the Garden Valley Zodiacs Invitational High School Fastpitch Tournament Saturday afternoon in Winkler.

"It is always good winning any tournament," texted Sabres coach Lawney Penner after their final game of the day. "This one felt good for a couple of reasons. We had to go through two really good teams on Saturday facing some really tough pitching to win and we were able to get all 14 girls on our roster a start in the last two games."

The SRSS won all three round robin games on Friday.

The Sabres defeated the Miller Aces of Altona 12-1; shutout the Carman Cougars 15-0 and beat the Pilot Mound Pilots 8-2.

Steinbach Regional edged the Boissevain Broncos 5-4 in the championship semifinal and then outscored the Portage Collegiate Saints 8-7 in the final.

The Saints won the last two Provincial High School Fastpitch Championships and they beat the SRSS in both finals.

"We have a lot of respected for PCI," replied coach Penner when asked how it felt to finally beat their nemesis. "They are the two-time provincial champions and have a strong lineup one through nine. It's good for our confidence to know that we can beat them, but we know the next time we face them, we will have to play our best ball in order to to compete with them."

The Sabres head off to southwestern Manitoba May 19th & 20th for the Broncos Tournament in Boissevain and coach Penner is hoping for another exciting weekend.

"We're looking to keep the momentum going by continuing to play good ball as a tuneup for the Zone's"

The Zone 13 championship will be held May 23rd & 24th in Steinbach.

The Sabres are the host team for the Provincial High School Fastpitch Championship June 2nd & 3rd in Mitchell.