It may have been just four teams on the field to decide the best men’s fastball team in the NWT, but it didn’t mean there wasn’t any action.
Pine Point Park hosted the 2023 NWT Men’s Fastpitch Championship from July 21 to 23 with two teams from Hay River and two teams from Yellowknife locked in a duel for the title. In the end, the Fire Prevention Prospectors of Yellowknife defeated the Gastown Giants, also from Yellowknife, by a score of 10-0 in the championship game on Sunday afternoon.
The game ended after five innings due to the mercy rule coming into effect – that’s when a team holds a seven-run lead or more at that point.
The tournament began on the evening of the 21st with the two Hay River team, the Heat and the Pirates, playing in the opening game. The Heat would win by a score of 7-4.
Terry Rowe, who played with the Pirates and who helped organize the tournament, said the atmosphere for the opening game was amazing, probably helped in part by the fact that it was Hay River vs. Hay River.
“I’d say we had around 250 people or so out for the first game,” he said. “Devin Penney was pitching for the Heat and we had Lyndon Daniels pitching for us. It was a fun opening game.”
All four teams played a round-robin to determine the placings for the playoffs on Sunday. The Giants finished first, while the Prospectors finished second. The Heat were in third and the Pirates ended up in fourth. That meant the Pirates would play the Giants and the Heat would take on the Prospectors in the semifinals – the winners of each game would advance to the final.
The Heat were beaten by the Prospectors by the mercy rule while the Pirates very nearly upset the Giants in their semifinal, but lost in extra innings.
“It was a back and forth game all the way,” said Rowe. “We were up, 3-1, then they got up on us, we were down one going into the seventh inning and we managed to score two to go up one, but they tied it in the bottom of the seventh.”
In playoff softball, the international tiebreaker rule is used. That’s where the last batter from the previous inning becomes a base runner and begins the inning at second base. The Pirates weren’t able to score their runner, but the Giants were and ended up winning by that one run.
“We tried to throw over to get the runner, but we overthrew and their runner ended up scoring,” said Rowe.
The weekend also saw a set of exhibition games between the Yellowknife Wolverines and Hay River Storm minor ball teams. Hay River ended up winning the first two games, while Yellowknife ended up winning the last one on Sunday.
“All of those games were close,” said Rowe. “Hay River was actually leading the last game, but Yellowknife came back and won it.”
-with files from James McCarthy