Paris, ON – The Mustangs Softball team won a silver medal at the 2023 OUS Softball Championship this weekend.

"Our team battled to the final pitch making a number of quality plays along the way.  Although second is difficult to accept now, in time, the student-athletes I'm sure will list it as a significant accomplishment." said Mustangs Head Coach Pete Lemon "Moreover, this result qualifies Western for the 2024 National Championship, where we will attempt to add to our record 5 National titles."

After an undefeated regular season, Western was looking for a successful finish to their 2023 season at the provincial championship.

On day one of the event the Mustangs started the tournament with a commanding 9-0 win over the TMU Bold. This was followed up with a defensive battle with the uOttawa Gee-Gees that ended in a 2-1 loss in extra innings. This pushed the Mustangs to the lower bracket and forced them to battle their way back into the playoff contention. To finish out the first day the Mustangs took on Brock and picked up a 7-3 win to push their record to 2-1.

Day two started with another close game, this time against the Queen's Gaels and Western would win this one 5-4 and this pushed the Mustangs into the semi-final game where the winner would move on to the final and the loser would finish 3^rd  for the event.

In the semi-final Western would meet Ottawa again. The gee-gees took an early 2-0 lead with a pair of runs in the top of the first inning. The Mustangs would respond with a run of their own in the bottom of the 1^st to cut the score to 2-1. After holding the gee-gees scoreless in the top of the second, Western would tack on four runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a 5-2 lead. Ottawa score three runs in the top of the 3^rd and brought the game to within a run at 5-4. Western would add a late run in the bottom of the 4^th inning to increase the lead to 6-4. That score would hold until the top of the 7^th inning when Ottawa would score one run but the Mustangs were able to shut down the Gee-Gees and take a 6-5 win. uOttawa would be awarded the bronze medal and Western was off to the gold medal game against the Toronto Varsity Blues.

In the finals, The Mustangs would score first in this one, plating a pair of runs in the top of the 2^nd  inning to take a 2-0 lead. Toronto would respond in the bottom half of the inning with three runs of their own to take a 3-2 lead. Western would tie the game at 3-3 with a run in the top of the 4^th inning. In the top of the 5^th inning, the Mustangs would add three more runs and take a 6-3 lead, but much like most of the game Toronto responded with a pair of runs to cut the Mustangs lead to 6-5. That score would hold until the bottom of the 7^th inning with the Mustangs looking to hold on to take the win. The Varsity Blues would come up clutch though picking up the tying run and then the winning run with 2 outs to take a 7-6 win and the gold medal.

"Our team is an outstanding group of women who prepared well and never quit.  Only the slimmest of margins resulted in the silver medal." said Lemon "Although silver was not in our plan, the team represented Western extremely well and should be very proud of their effort,"

Prior to the tournament the Mustangs were recognized with a trio of awards. Aimee Leduc was given a Western Division pitching award for her season that included a 5-0 record with a 0.5 ERA on the season with only 2 earned runs allowed and 30 strikeouts. Hailee Jenkins was given a batting award for her 32 hits in 58 at-bats for a .552 batting average adding 25 RBI's. Head Coach Pete Lemon was given a Coach of the Year for the teams undefeated season.