It was a bustling weekend around Tsiigehtchic's Tsiigley Field baseball diamond Sept. 12-13 as the charter community took to the bats for its annual baseball tournament.
Four teams of 10 signed up to battle it out for a $2,000 grand prize, with second place collecting $1,500 and third splitting $1,000. In the end, team Curtis Gruben won out against the Jijii Hitters in a pair of games that went to extra innings.
"It was a close game between Curtis Gruben and the Jijii Hitters," said recreation coordinator Sasha Blake."Jijii Hitters beat Curtis, but Curtis didn’t lose a game so they had to play another game back-to-back, because the tournament was double knock out. Curtis’ team end up beating them the second game and won the tournament."
A yearly end-of-summer tradition, the Tsiigehtchic baseball tournament has been going on for a long time. Blake said this was the third year she had run it. Cash prizes were funded by weekly bingos, lottery draws and other community recreation fundraising drives.
Initially planned for Sept. 5-6, the tournament was postponed a weekend in respect for the late Irene Kendo.
Games were seven innings long with 15-run mercy rules in effect after the first three. Mercy rules extended to 10-runs after the fifth inning to move games along. Teams consisted of seven men and three women, and three women were required to be on the field at all times. Stealing bases and bunting were not allowed and each time was limited to a maximum of three home runs per game.
