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Team competitive at nationals Benchwarmers come home from Kelowna with tenth-place finish
Shawn Giilck
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, August 15, 2013
INUVIK
The Inuvik Benchwarmers slo-pitch team struggled to a tenth-place finish at the National Championships held in Kelowna, British Columbia, over the Aug. 3 to 5 weekend.
The tournament served partly as a tune-up for the Territorial Championships held in Inuvik from Aug. 9 to 11. The Benchwarmers are the defending NWT champions.
Despite the track record of success here, the results of the nationals may have showed the team that while they can be competitive at that level, there still is lots of room for improvement.
"We had a very fun weekend, and played some great ball," said team member Natasha Kulikowski. "And we were competitive with the other teams in our division."
The team competed in the C division of the nationals.
"The Benchwarmers finished the round robin draw with a 1-3 record," Kulikowski said. "We started off slow with a loss of 1-21 against the No Eyed Dears, followed by losses to the Gators 7-10, and the Edge 7-14."
The scores grew tighter as the team found its legs at the tournament.
"Our last game was a win against the undefeated Bubba’s Girls with a 7-6 score in an extra inning. The losses put the Benchwarmers into the single knockout round," Kulikowski said. "The score against Better Than Nature going into the seventh inning was 0-0, then was tied 1-1 at the end of seven. Better Than Nature was able to get a bit of a rally in the extra inning, giving them the 6-2 win."
Kulikowski said the Bubba’s Girls team went on to win the C division with Benchwarmers being the only team to beat them.
"Overall it was a great experience, great ball," she said.
Team captain Stacey Christie said the nationals didn't leave the team feeling like it had something to prove at the territorials.
"No, it just made us want to go out and play some more ball," she said.
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