Dinos fastball league playoffs cancelled due to weather

By Kristy Koehler, October 4 2018 —

Inclement weather across the Prairies this fall has impacted at least one University of Calgary sports team. The Dinos women’s fastball team has cancelled the rest of their regular season games due to low temperatures, snow and rain.

The team played their last game on Sept. 11, cancelling their Sept. 15 and 16 road games in Saskatoon. After the first cancellation, head coach Neal Harlos was hopeful that the games would go ahead as planned for the Sept. 22 and 23 games in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

Unfortunately, the weather did not co-operate and the Moose Jaw games were also cancelled. In a statement on their website, the Western Collegiate Softball Association (WCSA) called the decision to cancel a difficult one, but ultimately the right call for player safety. The cancellation of the Moose Jaw games marks the first time in the history of the organization that the WCSA lost more than one weekend of play in a season.

Additionally, league playoffs that were scheduled to take place from Sept. 28–30 at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology have been cancelled as well.  

The Dinos are scheduled to play in the National Championships on Oct. 5 and 6 in Moose Jaw. As far as Harlos knows, these games are still going ahead. The team uses the standings from regular season play in the year prior to determine qualifications for Nationals. Harlos says there “has been no resolution on what happens … for determining league champs or national qualifiers” with all of the cancellations.

The team is heading into Nationals with an 11–2 record and a solid chance of improving their best ever performance at the tournament, a silver medal in 2011. In the 2017 season, the Dinos were bronze medalists in the WCSA league playoffs and finished seventh at Nationals.