For the first time since anyone can remember, there was a territorial softball championship for youth only.
And for the first time since anyone can remember, Hay River hoisted the big trophy at the end.
The Hay River Pirates are your 2021 U16 NWT Softball Championship winners courtesy of a 12-4 win over the Yellowknife Wolverines outfit coached by Jenn Lukas on Sunday afternoon in Yellowknife. The win capped off a perfect weekend for the Pirates though Team Lukas didnSA国际影视传媒檛 make things easy for them in the early going of the decider.
The Wolverines opened the scoring in the top of the first inning but the Pirates answered back in the bottom of the second to tie the game at 1-1. After that, though, the Pirates found their stride and opened things up in the third inning with four to take a 5-1 lead and never looked back from that point.
Pirates coach Keith Pettipas said a large part of the Pirates managing to hold down the fort was due to the performance of his son, Owen Pettipas, and his pitching in the final.
SA国际影视传媒淥wen was on top of his game on the weekend,SA国际影视传媒� he said. SA国际影视传媒淗e shut the door in the final.SA国际影视传媒�
The Pirates had the luxury of sorts of getting to wait until Saturday afternoon to play their first game in the five-team double-knockout tournament. Having won all of their games up to the final, the Pirates had the luxury of home-field advantage in the decider on the final day.
The last time a team from Hay River played a team from Yellowknife at this age level was the U16 jamboree held at Keith Broadhead Memorial Park last month, where Yellowknife ended up leaving with the title.
Coach Pettipas said he didnSA国际影视传媒檛 know how his team would do this time around.
SA国际影视传媒淲hen they came here, we only won one out of our three games,SA国际影视传媒� he said. SA国际影视传媒淭hey beat us and a large part of that was we werenSA国际影视传媒檛 hitting the ball very well. We got our bats going this time but we still didnSA国际影视传媒檛 know how good it would end up.SA国际影视传媒�
As for being territorial champions, coach Pettipas said he didnSA国际影视传媒檛 even know it was for real until the end of it all.
SA国际影视传媒淣o idea it was a territorial championship until we finished,SA国际影视传媒� he said with a laugh.
As mentioned, the last time a youth territorial softball championship happened in the NWT is anyoneSA国际影视传媒檚 guess but Lukas said she hopes this will be the start of a rebirth for the youth at the territorial level.
SA国际影视传媒淭he idea was to start small and have it turn into a kind of SA国际影视传媒業f you build it, they will comeSA国际影视传媒� thing,SA国际影视传媒� she said. SA国际影视传媒淚SA国际影视传媒檓 hoping that we could see teams from the Beaufort Delta in future years. I know Fort Simpson is looking to get some kind of youth program back up and running.SA国际影视传媒�
The minor ball season is about to wrap up in Hay River with maybe a couple of practices left to go, said coach Pettipas.
SA国际影视传媒淲eSA国际影视传媒檒l wrap it up with something fun,SA国际影视传媒� he said.
