Joey Payeur
They came from the big town, and swung some big bats, to make a small-town venue their home away from home.
Such was the story for two Fort Frances squads, FUBAR and the Clippers, who bashed their way into the ‘A’-side final of the annual Gus Lindberg/Kingsley Downs Memorial slo-pitch tournament Sunday at the Devlin diamond.
In the end, it wasn’t the luck of the Irish which carried the green-shirted FUBAR crew to an 11-6 victory and the tournament title.
Rather, it was a collection of hitters which, up and down the lineup, provided no easy outs for the opposition throughout the event.
The bash brigade began flexing their muscles in their opening game of the tournament last Thursday (July 14)—a 19-6 rout of the Whiskey Jax in a contest that saw FUBAR crank out five homers in the mercy rule-shortened, five-inning game.
FUBAR then clinched first place in Pool ‘B’ with a 17-10 victory over Shade on Saturday.
That game amounted to a practice one for Shade, which already had played its two preliminary-round games but take part in the extra game to help round out the schedule as the tournament featured six teams in Pool ‘A’ and only five in Pool ‘B.’
As it turned out, Saturday’s game was a preview to the ‘A’-side semi-final clash between the two squads on Sunday.
Only this time, FUBAR put the practice bats away and brought out their ‘A’-calibre aluminum, blasting Shade 22-1 in just five innings.
The Clippers, meanwhile, started their run to the ‘A’ final by downing Variety Zone 15-9 on the first day of the tournament last Monday (July 11).
Next up was Scared Hitless, which the Clippers overwhelmed 21-4 in a five-inning, mercy rule win Saturday.
That left the Clippers in second place in Pool ‘B’ and put them in the ‘A’-side semi-finals against River Rats, which had captured first place in Pool ‘A’ with a 2-0 mark after beating the Brew Jays 18-11 on July 12 and then downing the Downs family squad 18-8 on Saturday.
A nail-biter of a battle forced the two squads to go two extra innings, with the Clippers finally prevailing 9-8 over the River Rats.
The ‘B’-side final, meanwhile, went the way of the Village People, who used good defence and a steady offence to defeat the Brew Jays 13-4.
The win was payback for the Village People, who were clobbered 19-2 by the Brew Jays in their tourney kick-off and then fell to Variety Zone on Saturday (score not available).
It was the playoff round which fired up the Village People, as they swept past the Downs family (score not available) in the ‘B’-side semi-finals before taking care of business Sunday against the Brew Jays, who had bounced back from their loss to the River Rats with a 14-3 defeat of Northwest Bay on Saturday and then a 13-8 triumph over the Variety Zone in the ‘B’-side semi-finals later the same day.
In the ‘C’-side final Sunday, Northwest Bay held off an early challenge from the Whiskey Jax to cruise to a 25-8 victory.
The Whiskey Jax was within two at 7-5 after two innings, but Northwest Bay struck for six runs in the third and rolled from there in what was oppressive heat for both sides.
The 30-plus degree Celsius day felt more like 42 degrees with the humidity factored in.
Northwest Bay lost its first game 12-10 to Shade on July 13 before losing to the Brew Jays on Saturday, but earned a bye into the ‘C’ final based on a tie-breaker against the Whiskey Jax and Scared Hitless connected to which team had the best run differential after five innings in their two games combined.
The Whiskey Jax, who lost their other preliminary-round game 19-9 to Shade on Saturday, then faced off in the ‘C’-side semi-final on Saturday afternoon against Scared Hitless, who fell 14-3 to the Downs family on Friday before losing to the Clippers on Saturday morning.
The game was decided in the early innings, with the Whiskey Jax builiding a double-digit lead after two innings and eventually nailiing down a 19-9 victory.
