The Dauphin Clippers fastball team continued to prepare for zones with an exhibition game, as well as a one-day tournament in Ste. Rose, Saturday.

The exhibition game saw the Clippers fall 12-7 to the Ste. Rose Celtics, Thursday in Dauphin.

The Clippers opened the tournament with a 4-2 loss to the Neepawa Tigers, before rebounding to beat the Swan Valley Tigers, 13-4.

This put the Clippers into the third place game, where they lost to the host Celtics, 19-17.

Clippers coach Kyle Forsyth was pleased with the team’s play over the weekend.

“That wind was a challenge in the first game or two. The girls actually played really good this weekend. There’s a few little things that we’re going to work on. But other than that, they’re improving every game,” he said.

Forsyth is pleased to see the offence starting to produce.

“Our bats are starting to come around. We’re going to work a little bit more on that, because the bats went quiet a little bit  in the one game for a couple of innings, but then they came alive after that. Overall, the bats are coming along,” he said.

Forsyth noted there are a couple of new pitchers this year who haven’t pitch much in the past.

“They’ve done a great job for us, so far. We’ve had a couple of our regulars that came in and they shut the door when we needed them to. Pitching is coming along. We’re going to work a little bit more on a few things there,” he said.

The Clippers and Celtics will play another exhibition game, Thursday in Ste. Rose prior to hosting zones, May 20.

Forsyth feels the Clippers will be ready for the zone playoffs.

“I think the next few practices that we have between now and zones, we’ll work on a few things that we noticed over the last little while here,” he said.

“We’ve got to keep realizing that they’ve got to go back to the basics on a few things. The girls overall, they know what they need to do. It’s just when they get into that game situation, they forget and panic a little bit. We’ve just got to remember to settle down and play our game.”