The final of the Dustball Co-ed A division ended in thrilling fashion Sunday afternoon at the Pepsi Centre in Whitehorse.
Wyatt Short ripped a ball to the screen in right centre with a runner on base in the bottom of the seventh inning to send White Pass home with a 16-15 victory over DBLC.
White Pass, a combination of players from Skagway and Juneau, hit two home runs in the first inning to go up 5-1 after the first.
DBLC came roaring back with nine runs in the top of the second inning to take a 10-5 lead.
White Pass staged a comeback of their own to take a 11-10 lead after four innings.
Continuing the back and forth affair, DBLC took a 12-11 lead in the top of the fifth.
White Pass responded with two runs of their own to take a 13-12 lead after five innings.
DBLC came back with a run in the top of the sixth to tie the game at 13.
The DBLC team came up with a big defensive play in the bottom of the sixth, when the lead runner for White Pass got caught over the commitment line trying to come home, while trying to score the go-ahead run and couldn’t go back to third after a throw to the plate.
DBLC hit two home runs of their own in the top of the seventh to go up 15-13. Captain Harold Risby and Craig Bestard supplied the big shots.
Since White Pass had hit their maximum two home runs more than DBLC in the first inning, any other home runs were counted as outs up until that point.
The home run rule in effect during the game was that neither team was allowed more than two home runs more than the other team.
However, the home run disadvantage for the White Pass team was erased by DBLC’s two home runs in the top of the seventh.
That set the stage for Short’s heroics in the bottom of the inning.
Short said it was only a matter of time before someone hit another home run.
For Short, that happened at a most opportune time.
“It was great,” said Short, who ironically enough is 6’4”. “As soon as they hit those home runs, we knew that it was a problem for them, and we knew someone was gonna do it.”
White Pass went undefeated in the Co-ed A division throughout the tournament.
White Pass captain Andre Bykowski said the game was “back and forth all the way through. We’d already played that team two times – in the rain, in the sun. We used a lot of our home runs up early, so that kind of put us in a little bit of a hole, but we grinded and found a way in the end.”
Risby, a former Yukoner who brought the team up from Calgary, said it was “one of the best games we’ve played in a long time.”
Risby also pointed out that they played three games with White Pass.
“They took us all three times. Great people. It was such a good game.”
Risby said his goal for the weekend was for everybody to have fun.
“I had a great time too, but my overall goal was to make sure these people got to see the Yukon and got to enjoy it the same way I did growing up.”
Risby was asked what stood out to him about the weekend.
“Just seeing how all of my team did exactly what we do down south. We all have each others’ backs. That’s why I started this team down there. These are my people. I love these guys.”