They came, they saw and, once again, they conquered.
The Fitz Bombers of Fort Smith are your now two-time reigning A division champions of the NWT Co-Ed Slo-Pitch Championships after defeating Yellowknife's Team Shandie Tanner in the final in Yellowknife on Aug. 12 by a score of 14-8. It was another unbeaten weekend for the Bombers as they ran the gamut to win.
Brenden Bourke of the Bombers said a slow start to the final worried them a bit.
“A slow start but the bats came around,” he said. “The bottom of the order came through for us and we just went from there. We had been hitting well all weekend and the bats were a bit cold to start the game but we chose the perfect time to start firing.”
The third inning is where the Bombers started to take control of the game as they managed a six-run stanza, which is the maximum amount of runs allowed in an inning under Slo-Pitch National rules, the standard in play for the tournament. Once they established the lead, it was the defence which held things down.
Bourke said pitcher Travis Guild was solid for them as well, even if people think pitching in slo-pitch isn't a big deal.
“We took some heat for taking a few walks and giving up walks is going to hurt you in the long run,” he said. “Travis didn't give up too many walks and that meant we didn't give up any free bases.”
Because of some issues involving teams and scheduling, which included a team being disqualified for using ineligible players, the Bombers had a long wait in between their final game and the championship contest.
Bourke said it didn't make too much of a difference.
“We just got to check out of our hotels and just wait around the ball diamond,” he said.
It's been a long year for the Bombers as they've played several tournaments but this was the first time they had won a big one and it was a satisfying one, he added.
“We've had a lot of second places and it's finally nice to win one,” he said.
The Deline Braves were also in a final as they took on Trevor's Independent Mighty Beets of Yellowknife for the B division crown but they weren't able to come through in the end as the Mighty Beets ended up winning by mercy rule, which means a 12-run deficit after five innings.
“It was great to play with them and they always expect to do well,” said Carson Roche, who played with the Braves. “They're pretty bummed with second place but we had a great weekend.”
The championship encounter was a rematch of the round-robin meeting between the two teams, which was also won by the Mighty Beets.
“We were excited to get a chance to play them again but it didn't go our way again,” said Roche.
One thing that Deline had going for it was crowd size as their fans were awfully noisy, leaving no doubt as to who they were cheering for.
Roche said it made for a great atmosphere every game.
“You don't typically see those kinds of crowds for slo-pitch,” he said. “It made things a lot of fun and I know the other teams loved it, too.”