The Crew finishes on top in A division of Dustball tourney

Singles and doubles were all the Crew needed to take control of the championship game in the women's A division against the Chilkoot Chillers at the 26th annual Dustball Tournament.

Singles and doubles were all the Crew needed to take control of the championship game in the women’s A division against the Chilkoot Chillers at the 26th annual Dustball Tournament.
The Whitehorse-based team scored an incredible 12 runs in the inning to erase a five run deficit and go on to win 18-10 on Sunday at the Pepsi Softball Centre.
“It’s fantastic, it’s what you play for all weekend long,“ said Marcie Stenzig, the co-coach of the Crew. “We are proud of our team for coming back, that was a great comeback. We worked hard to get here this year, so we are very pleased with our outcome.“
The game may have ended well for the Crew, but the first few innings belonged to the Chillers, which built up an early lead. Chilkoot’s early success came as a result of timely hitting and solid defense.
After blanking the first inning, Chilkoot went to work, totalling three runs at the top of the second. The team cashed in the three runners on clutch singles. This was the first time all tournament that the Crew had trailed in a match.
The top of the third inning would be the Chillers finest of the game. With the score 3-1, the team went on to add five more.
With runners on first and second and nobody out, the Chillers showcased their offensive capabilities. The team scored its first run of the inning on double into left centre, which eluded the Crew’s outfield, who despite a great diving attempt was unable to make the catch.
The Chillers increased the lead to 5-1 on a single and then added one more on sacrifice fly to left field. Two more runs were notched before a pop up to right field ended the inning.
Despite the 8-1 deficit, the Crew wasn’t about to throw in the towel and began the bottom of the third inning with a pair of doubles. The team followed up the two doubles with a base hit, which scored its second run of the inning.
With nobody out and a base runner on first, the Chillers were able to record two outs after a deep fly-ball was caught and the relay throw to second was right on the money, preventing the attempted steal from the Crew’s base runner.
The Crew showed off its defensive brilliance in the top of the fourth. The Crew’s pitcher registered the first out on grounder and then, after a fly-out to right centre field, recorded her first strike out of the game to conclude the top half of the inning.
Before the Crew’s first hitter headed to the batters box in the bottom of the fourth, the team gathered outside its dugout for a pep talk.
“One, two, three, hits, hits, hits,“ they yelled.
The conference paid off immediately and before the conclusion of the inning, the Crew went through its batting order twice, registering 12 runs to take command of the game.
Solid defence for the remaining three innings of the game secured the win for the Crew, who shutout Chilkoot in the fifth and sixth inning, while limiting the team to just two runs in the seventh. The Crew scored one run of its own in the fifth inning and then added more in the sixth to finish with 18.
With the win, the Crew improved its record to a perfect 4-0 at the tournament, which included 23-7 victory over the Chillers on Saturday afternoon.
Stenzig said the Chillers improved as a team for the final.
“They hit much better in this game than they did in yesterday’s and we knew they were going to come out hungry,“ she said. “So we knew it was going to be a good game.“ 
She said the team just needed to relax a little bit after falling behind early on.
“I think we were a little bit nervous,“ Stenzig said. “We weren’t playing our normal game, so we just relaxed in there and started hitting the ball. Any time it’s slow pitch it’s offense and we knew that’s what this game was going to come down to, who was going to hit better because the other team was very strong as well.“
Laura Whitty played second base for the Crew during the tournament and is one of the core members on the team. Whitty has played in five Dustball tournaments for the team, which last one the A division in 2006.
She said the team changed its strategy to try and keep the ball on the ground after the pep talk in the fourth inning.
“The first two innings it was in the air and it just wasn’t working,“ Whitty said.

“Instead of going for the big hits, we just thought singles, as many singles as we could get.“
Whitty said the final against the Chilkoot was the toughest match of the tournament.
“They played really well,“ she said. “They were really hitting the ball in the first couple of innings.“
In the men’s A final, Imperial Saloon from Juneau, Alaska won over the P. & M. Recycling Guns by a score of 22-16.
The victory was Juneau’s third straight this year over the P. & M. Recycling and ended a two year Guns winning streak in the men’s A division.
The Alaskans never trailed once during the game and put the contest out of reach early on in the second inning when the team scored an incredible 14 runs.
Imperial Saloon got the ball rolling early on in the bottom of the second on a lead off home run, which cut its deficit to 7-4.
Juneau hit one more solo home run and cashed in its remaining balls on timely singles. The score after two innings of play was 17-7.
Despite a valiant effort put forth by the Guns, Juneau never looked back after the second inning and was able to maintain its control for the remained of the game.
Juneau’s head coach, Geoff Whistler, said it’s always nice to win a tournament.
“It was a great game,“ he said. “They are always tough, we always seem to trade, the last couple of years we have brought up pick-up teams and they beat us and this year we just came out ahead.“
Other winners in the Dustball tournament included Tlinglit Electric in the co-ed A division, LSCFN in the co-ed C division, while Roadhouse claimed bragging rights in the co-ed B division.
Whitepass finished with the event in top spot in the women’s B division, while Papa Bear won the women’s C.
Winners in the men’s division included Roadhouse Reds, Pioneer Bar and Southeast Mine Supply.