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Amirco Barry Pickers take slo-pitch playoff title

Samantha McKay

In two tight final games, the Amirco Barry Pickers faced off against two-time Midnight Sun Tournament winners the Native Yankees to win the 2018 Inuvik Slo-Pitch Association title.

Lance Nogasak, back left, Barry Jacobson, Charlton Wolki, Doug Keevik, Morris Nogasak II, Sacha Nogasak, Edward Kogiak, Gerald Stuart, Alex Gordon, Jenna Keogak, front left, Jamie Day, Kathleen Nogasak, Mary Kaglik, Patrice Stuart and Jenn Parrot of the Amirco Barry Pickers pose together after winning the Inuvik slo-pitch playoffs. Team members Joe Costa and Corey Cockney are not pictured.
Samantha McKay/NNSL photo

Heading into the pair of games, the Amirco Barry Pickers needed one win to take the title, but the Native Yankees needed two. The Native Yankees took the first final with a score of 11-6, but the Amirco Barry Pickers came back and took the second game with a score of 10-6 to take it all.

Amirco Barry Pickers team captain Morris Nogasak said the win was much-anticipated for the team.

"We've been waiting for this for three years," said Nogasak. "This is our third year in the finals, and I'm just happy. The team played great, nobody got down on each other … we all had good attitudes and put in a team effort."

Nogasak said the team has been playing together for four years.

Amirco Barry Pickers coach Barry Jacobson said the final two games were unusually low-scoring.

"The games were low-scoring for this type of playoff. There's a lot of good defence out there," he said. "They were able to find the holes better in the first game, but this last game, I think we found all the holes that we had to and we held them down to 10-6."

Jacobson said the Native Yankees provided some tough competition.

"It was a battle, with every team that [the Native Yankees] had to face," said Jacobson. "I think that was their fifth game in a row … so hats off to them for coming out and giving us a hell of a time."

Nogasak said he is proud of his team for how well they played in the tournament.

"Hats off to all the teams that came out to play this year, everyone played hard," he said. "It was a great tournament."

The Amirco Barry Pickers are sponsored by local security services contractor, Amirco Enterprises Ltd.

"He's been a great sponsor for us," said Jacobson. "The first part of our name comes from the sponsor, but the Barry Pickers part, that was the team, it was all them who came up with that."

Seven teams participated in the playoffs, which took place at the baseball diamond behind Capital Suites from August 24-26.