Leksand won their third consecutive Indoor Softball Championship when the 4th edition of the Swedish Indoor Championship was decided in Sandviken on February 3-5.

The tournament was played in the indoor soccer venue Dina Arena.

In the final, Leksand beat Skövde by the score of 8-1 in a game that was even until the 6th inning when Leksand could break through offensively thanks to two home runs by Anna-Karin Solen Westling and Lina Busk.


Skövde's Lina Larsson being celebrated at home plate after a home run.

Not to be confused with the SIM (Swedish Indoor Masters) tournament played in Enköping each year, the Official Swedish Softball Indoor Championships have been played for four straight years under the umbrella of the Swedish Winter Championships Week, a joint project between the Swedish Sports Confederation (RF) and Swedish National Television (SVT) - with 20 different sports participating in this year's event.

Thanks to this, there was good coverage of the softball event on National Television, including a segment that aired on the Sunday sports news show “Sportspegeln”.
Link to the segment that was broadcast can be found here: http://www.svt.se/sport/vintersport/os-satsning-ska-lyfta-svensk-softboll/


MVP Vanessa Karadag, Skövde, being interviewed by National TV

Results:

Leksand – Enköping                  3-1

Skövde – Söder                          12-0

Enköping – Skövde                    4-6

Söder – Leksand                         3-21

Söder – Enköping                       3-13

Skövde – Leksand                      10-10

Final:

Skövde – Leksand                      1-8

Individual awards:

Best pitcher: Karin Hjelm, Leksand

Best batter: Janet Thorsen, Enköping

Most Valuable Player: Vanessa Karadag, Skövde

-Kristian Pälviä, Helena Novotna-
/photos by Peter Ulvatun/