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Three teams go undefeated at minor softball championships

Olson Fencing, Softball Yukon and Dave’s Cleaning were all home safe with gold medals over the weekend.
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Olson Fencing, Softball Yukon and Dave’s Cleaning were all home safe with gold medals over the weekend.

The three teams went undefeated in their divisions at the Whitehorse Minor Softball Territorial Championship at the Pepsi Softball Centre, June 9-10.

“They literally played as a team,” said the Softball Yukon team head coach Don Fitzsimmons. “No one was down on anybody, they were all positive and all backed each other the whole time.”

Softball Yukon captured the under-14 division title with a 12-10 win over P&M Recycling in the final.

In a come-from-behind effort, Softball Yukon scored eight runs for a 12-9 lead in the fifth inning. With bases loaded and two out, the team scored five runs on a walk and three hits from Alyssa McCulloch, Kaleb Zaliauskas-Swan, Kit Bradford-Andrew and Memphis Friesen to take the lead.

“When we finally told the kids to just have fun they relaxed and everything came easy after that,” said Fitzsimmons. “People were patient in the batters box, they took the walk if the walk was there for them, and swung away if the pitch was good.”

Arctic Backhoe took third in the division.

Olson Fencing took gold in the under-12 division with a sixth-inning mercy-rule win over another Softball Yukon-sponsored team in the final.

After the second inning ended 1-1 Olson Fencing broke it open in the third with seven runs en route to a 17-5 win.

“We had players who had never played baseball before (this season),” said Olson Fencing head coach Chad Fraser. “Theo (Anderson) had an amazing game, Alex (Kiriak) made a great catch, Isaiah (Fraser) and Beau (Yurchak-Lovelace) both hit homeruns. This was a very intense game, so it was awesome for them to step up.”

“I had three pitchers today — Beau, Jacob (Nickel) and Theo all pitched — and they were all throwing strikes. It didn’t seem to phase them that this was an intense game.”

Marsh Lake Tents & Events finished with the bronze.

Dave’s Cleaning cleaned up in the under-17 division, tying their first game — after coming back from down seven runs in the final inning — before winning their next two.

They claimed gold with a 16-9 win over Yukon College in the final.

“The kids played great. A lot of the kids on this U17 team I’ve coached previous years, I coached in U14 and some in U12,” said Dave’s Cleaning head coach Russ Hobbis. “We took control once we were up at bat and the kids hit great — lots of singles and a couple homeruns, once with bases loaded.”

Some big bats helped the cleaning crew to victory. Matthew Tremblay and Parker Hobbis both hit grand slams in the final.

“In the final game Kenny Hyatt pitched the whole game and just nailed it for us,” said Russ.

“They were an awesome group of kids to coach,” he added. “I had so much fun coaching the U17s.”

Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com