Cochrane's talented baseball player Maeve Maguire is in Spruce Grove right now preparing for the U16 Girls Invitational Championship being hosted by Summerside, PEI from Aug. 25 to 28.

The 15-year-old was one of 15 players selected for Team Alberta that will be vying for the championship against 10 other Canadian female baseball teams. They play in the opening game of the tournament against Newfoundland and Labrador on Aug. 25.

Maeve is well known skilled player in Cochrane Minor Baseball and was a member of the Cochrane Crush 15U AAA team this season. She's also played for the elite Calgary's Redbirds and Strive teams.

She started playing at age 10.

"When I was growing up, I'd always watch my older and younger brothers play baseball and just wanted to try it, and I've loved it ever since."

She's been pursued to play for Alberta by Parkland coach Chris James since she was a member of the Crush U13 AAA team.

"Every time he would face our team he would always ask me to come and play for Team Alberta. That's how it really got started and then I listened to the program, went to camps, and finally went to an ID camp and made the team."

While she's familiar with many of the other players on the team, the tune-up in Spruce Grove will be the first time they have played as a unit. They hail from as far away as Fort McMurray in the north and Medicine Hat in the southeast. Karina Patayanikorn-Fithen is from nearby Airdrie.

"I think it will help a bit. This is the first time the whole team has been together but a bunch of the girls know each other and I think we'll click pretty well."

She suspects Ontario and British Columbia will offer the stiffest competition.

Maeve hopes to continue to play for Team Alberta and aspires to be selected for Team Canada.

"I would really like to play either a co-ed or all-girls team in university or college, depending upon how the baseball world evolves."

She was a member of the Cochrane Crush 15U AAA team that captured silver in Baseball Alberta's Division Two Provincial Championship earlier this summer. The team earned a berth into the Division One Provincials, where they went 1-2.

Training will continue until Aug. 21 in Spruce Grove, and the team departs for PEI on Aug. 23.