Following a very successful 12team slo-pitch tournament during Canora Ag Days on August 15, it was the Mohilla Gorillas, a team from Canora, Norquay and Crystal Lake, which won the top prize which included $500 and Slo-Pitch National (SPN) hoodies DTD of Melville was the A-side runner-up winning $250 and SPN cooler bags.
On the B side, the River Dawgs from Melfort/Nipawin defeated Stingers and Dingers. The Dawgs won $100 in cash and SPN hats while the runnersup won mugs and playing cards.
"This year we were very happy with the outcome of the tournament," said Kerry Fullawka, who organized the tournament with Devon Sawka and Brendon Skibinsky. "We originally had 16 teams sign up, but one team cancelled the day before and three did not show up. So in total we had 12 teams, doubling the amount of teams that were entered last year."
It was a very busy day for the teams with play beginning at 8 a.m. and carrying on until dark, he said. Other teams came from quite a distance. In addition to the four teams mentioned, the other teams entered were: The Chive of Canora, Bat Attitude of Buchanan, The Leftovers of Canora, Pitch Slow of Invermay, Nehaj’s Building of Canora, Brew Jays of Canora, Wreckin’ Ballers of Keesekoose Reserve and Reckless Fire of Canora.
The organizers added a new event to the tournament called "The Homerun Derby" and it was a great success, said Fullawka. "We had a big crowd and lots of cheering for everyone’s favourite hitters. We had approximately 30 players enter the derby."
The winner of the derby was Matt Hollinger from DTD who won a Miken SloPitch Bat that is valued at $300. For second place, there was a tie between Donovan Nixon from DTD and Kerry Fullawka from Stingers and Dingers. Each took home gift certificates from local businesses.
"I had a lot of positive feedback from the derby," Fullawka said. "People really enjoyed watching as well as it gave the players a nice break from playing slo-pitch and allowing them to step up to the plate and swing freely."
The bigger tournament produced a lot of positive feedback from the players, as well as the community at large, he said.
"With the success that we had this year and the support from local businesses, residents of Canora and the surrounding communities, we believe a twoday tournament next year would be a great success," Fullawka said.
"This was Canora’s first time in many years to stage such a large tournament and we have learned a lot from it and see what it can do for the local economy," Fullawka said. The tournament’s success allowed Canora to be recognized as a community that puts on a fun slo-pitch event.
The sport of slo-pitch is getting bigger and bigger every year throughout the area so with continued support as was received this year, it should be no problem having another major tournament next year, he said. The league is reviving interest in slo-pitch and the tournament adds to that momentum.
"Our main goal is to add a new diamond so our tournaments could become bigger and it will even make league games more popular," Fullawka said. "We found that only having two diamonds available for a large number of teams in a tournament made for a tight playing schedule. Having a third diamond would make scheduling a lot easier."
Fullawka went on to thank Devon Sawka for all his work in helping organize the tournament and also gave Brendon Skibinsky a shout out for his involvement.
As slo-pitch is making a comeback, the support and donations of prizes from local businesses has been awesome, Fullawka said. He made mention of Home Town Source which donated the bat for the homerun derby; the Canora Hotel, Gabanos and Northstar Chicken for prize donations; good deals from SloPitch National for prizes; Nehaj’s Building Centre for the donation of the slo-pitch boards; and "a big thanks to the Ag Society for its donation as well as letting us put on the tournament during Ag days."
