The Central Energy have high hopes going into the U14 Canadian Girls Fast Pitch Jamboree.

The National Championship which will be hosted by the Smitty's Terminators will be held at John Blumberg Softball Complex.

"The girls are very excited for the upcoming tournament," stated manager Greg Petrie.  "We got a good team that has a good chance of placing high and hopefully getting a medal."

The Energy, based out of Carman, play in a superleague against teams from Winnipeg, Brandon, Steinbach and other Manitoba regions.

The club began practicing for this season back in March leading to early success against some of the top teams in Manitoba and qualifying for a spot in the tournament.

Petrie shared what kind of competition he expects this week.

"Smittys will be very strong.  All the other Manitoba teams I think we can give a real good game.  There are teams from B.C. that we haven't seen and we have heard that they are very strong so that will be a tough game on Thursday for us.  But I think we should come out on top of most games or at least be very close to winning our round robin games. We will just have to see what some of the B.C. or Ontario teams are like and how we match up."

The Energy will play round robin games against the Tavistock Black, Brandon's Westman Magic, the White Rock renegades and the Napanee express.

The Central manager explained pitching is a major key to the success of his ball club.

"We have lots of confidence in our pitching," said Petrie.  "I think we have the best pitching in the super league, our defense is extremely strong.  We can be a little more agressive on the base pads and make some things happen there.  If our bats show up, we are going to be unstoppable I think."

Petrie added the opportunity for these girls to experience a national championship is something very exciting that the team is looking forward to and will carry on the rest of their lives.

The U14 Canadian Girls Fast Pitch Jamboree will be held August 17th to 21st in Winnipeg.