Whitehorse’s Pepsi Softball Centre will be the scene of a national championship for the first time in a quarter century this August.
A total of 27 teams will take the field for the 2016 Men’s and Women’s Canadian Slo-Pitch Championships, Softball Yukon announced Wednesday.
“This will be the first time Softball Yukon has hosted a Canadian championship since 1991, so a lot of people are really looking forward to it,” said Softball Yukon executive director George Arcand in a news release. “We hope the community will come out and support our local teams in action, as well as support the many visitors who are making the trip to the Yukon for the event.”
Four Whitehorse teams - two men’s and two women’s - will represent Yukon at the championship.
The Fountain Tire Titans and P&M Recycling Sistas will take on seven teams in the women’s tournament August 9-13. The P&M Recycling Guns and Dave’s Cleaning will face a bigger field of 16 outside teams in the men’s side of the championship August 7-13.
As hosts of this year’s nationals, Softball Yukon sent two teams to last year’s. It was a tough slog for both.
The two teams - the Urban Realty Reds in the men’s tournament and the Fountain Tire Titans in the women’s - went winless, together getting outscored 415-80 over 19 games. (Perhaps a home-field with characteristically loud Yukon fans can give this year’s teams an edge.)
All games will be played on four diamonds at the Pepsi Softball Centre and will be free to attend.
August’s championships won’t be Softball Yukon’s first time hosting a major event in recent years, nor will it be the last.
Whitehorse was home to the 2008 International Softball Federation Junior Men’s World Championship, the 2012 ISF Women’s World Championship and the 2014 ISF Junior Men’s World Softball Championship.
Whitehorse will also host the ISF Men’s World Championship in the summer of 2017.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com