One day, the Hay River Heat will figure out how to beat the Fire Prevention Blue Jays of Yellowknife.
Until then, they have to watch the Blue Jays continue their reign atop the fastpitch mountain in the NWT.
The Heat took on the Blue Jays in a rematch of the 2017 championship on July 15 and just like the first time, the Blue Jays prevailed, this time by a score of 7-1. Blue Jays pitcher Steve Thomas shut down the Heat from start to finish and giving them no chance.
Glenn Smith of the Heat said Thomas was simply unhittable.
"He was almost unbeatable in that game, too strong for us," he said. "Not many teams beat him and no one beat him that day."
So good was Thomas' performance on finals day that he gave up just two runs in three games.
The tournament itself was supposed to be a four-day round-robin but ended up being a single-elimination horse race on the final day. Two straight days of non-stop rain saw the field at Tommy Forrest Ball Park in Yellowknife rendered unplayable and forced the hand of organizers to come up with a plan to salvage the tournament.
All eight teams agreed to the revamped playoff format on the final day and even that was up in the air as the rain came back that morning. Thankfully for the organizers, it wasn't too serious that games couldn't be played.
Hay River started against the Slades Expos and were forced into a battle but eventually came out on top, 12-6. Five runs in the sixth inning helped propel the Heat past a plucky Expos outfit.
"We were concerned a bit against them," said Smith. "We hoped to go a bit quicker against Slades but we battled through it and got the win."
Next up for the Heat was the Matonabee Petroleum Trappers in the semifinal and that also went the way of the Heat by the same 12-6 scoreline as the quarter-final. Just like against the Expos, the Heat needed a big inning late in the game to put some daylight between the teams.
"Jenn Lukas pitched really for them," said Smith. "We got more comfortable with her pitching as the game went on and got some more base runners and pulled ahead for good."
The final started out as a pitcher's duel as Thomas and Lyndon Daniels for the Heat went toe-to-toe for the first couple of innings. The third inning, though, is where the Blue Jays broke it open with four runs to take a 4-0 lead, plenty enough support for Thomas to do his thing and shut down the Heat.
"We tried to play some small ball and get some base runners on but it didn't work," said Smith. "You can't get runners across when you can't get them on base."
The Heat weren't the only non-Yellowknife team playing in Yellowknife as the South Nahanni Twins, made up of players from Fort Simpson, Fort Smith and Yellowknife got the chance to enter the fray.
They lost out in the quarter-final but Smith said it's a bay step toward hopefully seeing them more often.
"It was nice to see them come back into it," he said. "They're developing their program there and we'll do what we can to support them do it."
He said as of right now, the 2019 territorial championship will either be in Hay River or Fort Simpson.