The Southeast Steelers captured the silver medal – their best finish in five years – at the Western Canada Senior B women’s fastpitch championships in Irma, Alberta.

The Carnduff-based Steelers won their first four round robin games, and finished 5-1. They opened with a 20-4 victory over Manitoba-based Pilot Mound, 7-0 over Alberta’s Warrior Pride, 10-3 over the Regina Extreme and 10-0 over the host Irma Ladies.

The only loss was 6-4 to the Winnipeg Lightning. The Steelers recovered to beat the Calgary Red Sox 10-5.

“They were dominant through the whole round robin, except for the game against the toughest team there, the Winnipeg Lightning,” said coach Alan Hubbard. “They pretty well mercied (enacted the mercy rule) in every game except for the Lightning.”

The Steelers finished second in the round-robin and played the Lightning again for the right to advance directly to the final. Winnipeg won 6-0, and the Steelers were relegated to the semi-final, which they won 9-0 against Regina.

Winnipeg defeated the Steelers 7-1 in the final.

Hubbard said the Steelers and the Lightning were clearly the top two teams at Westerns.

“Everybody figured we were the better team there, but Winnipeg showed us that we weren’t,” Hubbard said.

Hitting was the Steelers strong suit at Westerns. Aimee Unchulenko was the top hitter during the round robin with a .591 batting average and nine runs batted in.

“Out of the six games (in the round-robin), we were something like plus-32 (for runs for and against differential,” said Hubbard.

Teams can accumulate a maximum of plus-seven in terms of runs for and against, regardless of if they win by more than seven.

“That was mainly because of our bats, but also our pitching to keep the opposition off of the scoreboard,” said Hubbard.

Hubbard noted that the Steelers didn’t make Westerns last year, and he was pleased with how the players responded in 2010. They had some good veteran players this year, and they were joined by some impressive young talent.