JAY-DELL MAH
Special to the Arrow Lakes News
The Browns of Kelowna vow to return in 2019 to defend their Nakusp mixed slo-pitch title.
The Browns won the championship last week, downing the 2017 winners, the Idiots of Kelowna, 15-7 in the tourney final for top money of $1,500. Idiots took home $1,000. The Tomahawks of Trail-Fruitvale and Built to Spill, also a Kelowna team, each won $500.
Nakusp sent two teams into the tournament playoffs. The Grey Jays lost a heart-breaker to Tux of Calgary 11-10. SSP advanced a step further with a 17-5 romp over Asylum of Ponoka before dropping a 20-8 decision to Built to Spill to finish out of the money.
In a continuing power show, the Browns crushed five home runs in the final, a pair by Matt Stang with Garrett Wiese, “Bud” McKaig and Mike Bucknell also slamming circuit blows.
The teams were tied 6-6 after three innings but the Browns pulled away with three in the fourth, two in the fifth and four in the sixth to run away with the ball game, interrupted briefly in the 5th inning when one of the Idiots was tossed from the game by plate umpire Claude Gullickson for a little too much carping about his calls.
Browns reached the final with a 27-13 victory over Built to Spill while the Idiots walked over the Tomahawks 27-14.
Will the Browns be back next year? The champs’ Blaise Laveay could not have made it clearer.
“That’s the biggest certainly ever! We will never miss! We’ve been coming for 15 years and skipped one year to go to Nationals and we were miserable the whole time! We had 14 young kids running around there this year so the Browns will be coming for a loooong time!”
Laveay said it’s not just the ball, but the atmosphere. “We honestly just love it so much. It’s become our ball family reunion for us at this point. The area is just so beautiful and the whole group looks forward to it all year.”
Tournament spokesman Jarrod Teindl expressed gratitude for the community’s support. “Once again, the awesome people of this community came together to put on another huge success, and show 20 teams and their families, what Nakusp is all about.” Teindl cited “the tireless volunteers, the professionalism of our much appreciated umpires, the food vendors … a huge pat on the back is well deserved!”
The tournament is over, but another phase of Nakusp’s slo-pitch growth is about to begin. A women’s team has been formed and is slated to compete in a tournament at Castlegar next month. The club is expected to play a few games with local teams this month as a warmup to the competition.
