Despite a sixth-place standing in Division 1, the CAFN Chiefs have big hopes.
“We’re going to try to pick up our stats in August and hopefully make the First Nations World Series in Utah,” said Chiefs captain Sharmane Jones.
“We had a bit of a winning steak at the beginning and a little bit of a losing streak at the end (of the first half of the season). We were thrown together a little bit. We have a First Nations team so we try to keep our First Nations (players) coming in. We have a couple rookies this year, so our stats have been down.
“We’re still in Division 1!”
The Chiefs (3-3-1) took a step towards their goal of a better record with a 15-6 win over the Roadhouse (3-4-1) in Co-ed Slo-pitch league action Wednesday at the Pepsi Centre.
Up by the small margin of 4-3 at the top of the third, the Chiefs took control with an eight-run inning. Putting in half of those runs was a grand slam homer off the bat of Ryan Gleason. Two innings later Gleason would again surpass the outfield wall with a three-run shot.
“This is a normal game (for him),” said Jones. “We just weren’t on our bats for a while and now we’re on our bats.
“We got some new bats—we broke all our bats from last year and now we’re breaking in new ones.”
Besides an inside-the-park homer by captain Dan Johnson in the final inning, the Roadhouse failed to put one over the outfield.
“We just didn’t hit the ball—you have to hit the ball in softball to win,” said Roadhouse assistant captain Arlo O’Riordan. “No home runs hurts. With the wind blowing out we should have definitely taken advantage of that.”
In other Division 1 news, Roche Firth Financial got their first win of the season Wednesday with the forfeit of the Whitehorse Dental Donkeys.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com