Eleven men's teams and four junior squads will be swinging the sticks this weekend in the 49th annual Canada Day Fastpitch Tournament at Spruce City Stadium.
The three-time defending native national champion Westbank Cardinals are back to try to retain their Canada Day tournament title. The Cards will be leaning on the pitching arm of Steve McNaughton of Curve Lake, Ont., who helped the Durham Diamondbacks to a sixth-place finish last year at the International Softball Congress world tournament. McNaughton will be taking the place of Cardinals pitcher Caleb Keeshig, last year's Canadian Native Fastball Championship MVP, who is injured.
Westbank will face some stiff competition in the three-day Canada Day event from the NB Petro Hawks of Regina, the team the Cardinals beat last year in the national final in Edmonton. Coached by Ally McNabb, the Hawks are pinning their title hopes on Brock Perry, who pitched for Westbank the past five seasons. Two local teams - the Big Guy Lake Blazers and Falcon Contracting - also hope to be in the mix playing in the senior final Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
Josh Anderson of Vancouver, the junior division MVP who led Lenny's Selects to the national native junior division title last year in Edmonton, will also be throwing heat for Falcon this weekend, with support on the rubber from Keith Henry. Chad Ghostkeeper, Randy Potskin, Evan Potskin and Robbie Antoine are expected to spice the Falcon offence, as will 20-year-old Nicholas Potskin (Randy's son), who will play in the senior division for Westbank this year at native nationals in Regina.
"Nicholas is probably one of the best hitters in Canada," said Sheldon Bjorklund, the Canada Day tournament organizer and Blazers manager. "In the Spruce City league he hammers the ball and wherever he's been playing he's been hitting. He's played for Westbank a few times this summer and he led the team in hitting."
Falcon faces the Redskins (Burns Lake) in their first game tonight at 7:30 p.m.
Big Guy Lake will have pitcher Travis Nevin of Indian Brook, N.S., in the lineup when they take on the Nak'azdli Indians of Fort St. James in the tournament-opener tonight at 6. Nevin is Canadian-born but played for Team U.S.A. last year at the Pan-Am Games. He'll be bringing Zach Denny from Nova Scotia as his battery-mate this weekend.
The Blazers have nine junior-aged players and for the tournament have added the experience of pitcher Norm Linton and Vanderhoof veterans Sheldon Patrick and Spencer Siemens. Big Guy Lake won the national native junior division two years ago in Prince George and finished third last year in Edmonton, a tournament won by Lenny's Selects of Prince George. The junior national tournament is set for Aug. 3-6 in Regina and Bjorklund says this time around there likely won't be enough players to have two teams representing Prince George.
"I'm in talks right now with Chad (Ghostkeeper) and Randy (Potskin) and they're kind of at a crossroads with their team because they don't have enough and we don't have enough and it makes sense for us to join together," said Bjorklund.
The feature game tonight starts at 9 with the Takla Lakers taking on Driftpile of Alberta.
"Takla has a good fan base and there are a lot of people who live in Prince George who have roots in Driftpile, so that should be a good game," said Bjorklund.
Falcon Contracting and Big Guy Lake are both part of the five-team Spruce City Men's Fastball Association, along with the Mitch Gobbi Contracting Giants, Nak'azdli Indians and the Spruce City Timberwolves midget team. The T-wolves are preparing for the provincial championship in Smithers, July 5-8.
The Prince George Hitmen - mainstays at the tournament the past decade - won't be involved this weekend due to a death in the family. The funeral is this weekend in Alberta.
"When they put a team in the tournament it's quite the atmosphere in the ball park just because they're loud and they cheer," said Ghostkeeper. "It's a good group of people and they'll be missed."
Bjorklund said plans are already in the works for next year's 50th annual Canada Day tournament and he said it's likely a masters (over-40) division will be added to the weekend lineup.
"There's lots of guys over 40 years old who are still good ball players," said Bjorklund. "But to compete against these kids who are 22 or 24 years old is tough. If I had a masters division a lot of the teams here (in northern B.C.) would be competitive."
Prince George hosted the 2016 Native National Fastpitch Championship, which attracted 77 teams and included a women's division. Local organizers have tried to get women involved in the Canada Day tournament the past three years, but to no avail.
"The last couple years we've tried getting it going and we can never get the minimum four teams," said Bjorklund. "There's no local women's native team and that's a big part of it. There's very few teams in B.C. and none in northern B.C."
Big Guy Lake has entered a split-squad in the junior tournament along with Goodfish Lake (Alta.), Witsit Angels and Kekumbas. Junior games will be played at the adjacent Prince George Minor Boys Softball field at Carrie Jane Gray Park.
Games resume Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m. Finals are set for Sunday at noon (junior) and 3:30 p.m. (senior).
