At the Pepsi Softball Centre on Saturday, the Roadhouse finally stood in the champion spot after a 20-17 win over Kal Tire.
Just three days prior to the Whitehorse co-ed softball league’s final division-two game things looked much different.
In a duel between the two teams that finished the regular season tied for first, Kal Tire took the win with a four-run lead over the Roadhouse.
“(Today) they just had a stronger team,” said Kal Tire captain Jen Ball after the championship match.
“They did really well, they were on defence, everything. Bats, everything.”
The Roadhouse came out swinging, scoring four runs in the first and eight in the fourth.
The weight of a comfortable lead proved too much for the Roadhouse team, as Kal Tire put down some rubber, scoring 10 runs to close the gap to 18-15 in the bottom of the fifth.
“We were just missing balls and a couple different plays,” said Roadhouse captain Megan Freese. “It wasn’t anything specific, we just had a bad inning,”
“We were just trying to play really, really hard,” said Ball. “It was blood, sweat and tears.”
Hopes were kept alive for Kal Tire as they scored one last run, brought in on a grounder by Kim Scipnick.
However, all was for naught as the following batter grounded to Roadhouse’s second baseman, Haley Stallabrass, who threw to second for the force to end the game.
“Haley did an amazing last play and Darren Banlangen was catching really well for us in left field for the whole tournament,” said Freese.
“We come out and we have fun, that’s our biggest goal,” she added. “We don’t care so much about the winning, we all just get along so well.”
Coke tastes victory
in division three
For the second year in a row, Air Cargo Express was delivered a second-place finish as Coke defended its title, taking the final division-three game 18-6.
“They’ve been our downfall all season,” said Coke captain Megan Stonehouse. “The two (regular season) games we came up against them we lost by one run each time.
“So it was really good to come back and mercy them.”
The game was cut short by the mercy rule in the bottom of the fifth inning when Coke had its biggest inning with six runs.
After Bud Arnold scored to make it 13-6, Sam Oettli cleared the bags with a grand slam homer to right field.
“Sam, he’s wonderful,” said Stonehouse. “He usually does soccer, but his wife was playing with us, so we converted him to softball. So he’s got lots of speed, and he’s actually been hitting well all year.”
“We knew he could hit it out of the park,” added Stonehouse. “He just hadn’t done it yet this season.”
Coke’s Bill Stonehouse brought in the gameending run with a hit to right field, scoring Andrew Schmidt.
Air Cargo possibly used up all their hits earlier that morning with a 17-2 win over Kustom Kuts.
“We just weren’t on the bats, we weren’t hitting,” said Nicole Beandry, Air Cargo’s captain, speaking of her team’s last game.
“That was our biggest problem.”
Coke had beaten Air Cargo two days before 9-8 in an earlier post-season game.
Earl’s pulls plug on Tlingit Electric in division one
A triple-elimination round robin not only makes it hard to predict who will play in the finals, but also when the finals might take place.
This was the case in division one as Earl’s took the title with a 16-8 win over Tlingit Electric Thursday evening, two days before the season wrap-up.
In the fourth, Aaron France hit a two-run shot to increase Earl’s lead to 10-7. Earl’s turned the final screws in the following inning, scoring six runs.
“It was a solid game for the team,” said Earl’s captain Blaine (Bubba) Demchuk. “Everyone played very well.”
Earl’s finished the regular season in unspectacular fifth place.
However, because of player shortages — especially with filling female numbers — Earl’s had to forfeit all but one of their 11 losses. They had five wins in the regular season.
“It’s the same thing we’ve been saying all year long,” said Demchuk. “If we can get a team out there, our guys are really solid, and we get the win.”
With a second-place finish in last month’s Dustball, and now a first-place finish in the co-ed league, Earl’s will be travelling to Sitka, Alaska this weekend with extra confidence as they compete against teams from throughout North America in the Mudball.
Coyote Video takes
division four with
comeback win
Coyote Video might wish they had this on tape.
Facing a 12-run deficit, Coyote Video kept the Bounty Hunters scoreless in three innings as they mounted a 13-run scoring spree to win the division-four title 15-14 Saturday.
“We sort of regrouped and said, listen, we have to get our act together here,” said Coyote player Wayne Tuck, talking about being down 14-2 by the middle of the third.
“So we regrouped and recomposed ourselves … and we ended up scoring a little bit every inning.”
Still trailing by three runs by their final at bat, Coyote Video slid safely into the winner’s circle with a string of four runs.
“We started hitting the ball where they weren’t,” explained Tuck.
Coyote’s Cameron Kirkwood tied the game in the seventh with a three-run inside-the-park home run.
“He hit it in the gap and he’s a fast runner, and managed to get home,” said Tuck.
Neither team finished the regular season with glowing records, yet the Bounty Hunters took the cake with an eighth-place finish.
“It was a fun game, those guys were playing really well,” said Tuck, speaking of the Hunters. “They really got their act together this tournament.”