Ball under the midnight sun
Just Call Vince snags the win against Native Yankees in finals
Sarah Ladik
Northern News Services
Thursday, August 4, 2016
INUVIK
It was a nail biter of a final game at last weekend's Midnight Sun Tournament.
Karl Kuptana of the Rockin' Robins runs to first base after a hit in the quarter finals Aug. 1. - Sarah Ladik/NNSL photo
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The reigning league champion, Just Call Vince, was down by eight runs early in the game, but worked hard to catch up and ended up scoring the two runs needed to win in the bottom of the seventh inning to finish 16-15 against the Native Yankees.
"It was very one-sided in the wrong direction at the start," said Mark Robertson, a player with the winning slopitch team. "Everybody just started hitting the ball and played great defence. We kept positive and it turned around."
Robertson also noted that the winning hit was by Scott Healey, who has lived in Inuvik for more than 20 years and is moving to the East Coast next week, making this his last tournament as an Inuvik resident.
"It was a great game, and a great tournament," said slopitch league president Barry Jacobson, adding that he has been playing in the Midnight Sun Tournament every August long weekend as long as he can remember. "The level of competition was very good."
Eight teams turned out for the weekend, including two from outside Inuvik. The Rockin' Robins from Tuktoyaktuk tied for third place overall and the team from Aklavik tied for fifth. While Jacobson said while the organizers are always looking for more teams to sign up, this was a pretty typical roster for this tournament.
With an added holiday Monday, the tournament was a longer one than usual with 27 games played overall. Jacobson said each team was guaranteed five games in the round robin, and all teams got to play at least one game in the playoffs.
"It's competitive, and it's lots of ball," Jacobson said, noting that the weather co-operated on the last day at least, if not for most of the weekend.
The Midnight Sun Tournament is also the only event of the summer so far to have men and women play slopitch together, as they do in the regular league. All the other tournaments so far, according to Jacobson, haven't been co-ed.
"It's just a good weekend," he said. "Lots of ball, lots of games, and lots of fun."
