It has been a year in the making, and the Humboldt Hitmen slo-pitch team had some fun at the 2016 Slo-pitch National Championships in Kelowna on Jul. 28 to Aug. 1.
The Hitmen won the 2015 ‘E’ provincials in Saskatoon which meant they were invited to ‘E’ Nationals. Unfortunately with the ‘E’ Nationals being in Newfoundland, Coach and Manager Chris Stadnyk, says they decided to go up to the ‘D’ level in order to take part in a closer tournament in Kelowna.
The Hitmen played against teams from British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, while a few teams from Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland were also competing.
Going up a level was a challenge but Stadnyk says they had strong defense while having some trouble getting on the bats.
“Our defense was probably the best I’ve seen it in years,” says Stadnyk, “our offense, usually our strong point, went to sleep.”
The Hitmen did defeat the Alberta Defenders 9-7 but that would be there only win as they would go on to lose against the BC Hustlers 14-7, the BC Orioles 22-10, Coffrage Daniel Lampron from Quebec 21-9, the Regina Reign 15-0, and the Vernon Killer Bees 19-11.
Stadnyk says that a couple of the games were pretty close for the first 5 innings but that would be when their offense would unfortunate lose some traction.
Coffrage Daniel Lampron would go undefeated for the entire tournament and would go on to win their final match, 9-7 against the BC Dodgers to win the tournament.
Despite the 1-6 record, Stadnyk says the team did have fun around Kelowna and the tournament was very well planned.
All the players were able to bring their families and partners along to enjoy it with golf and hitting some beaches.
Stadnyk says that without the eleven sponsors from the local area they would not have been able to play in the tournament.
