A men’s Klukwan team at last weekend’s Dustball International Slo-Pitch Tournament in Whitehorse lost its first two softball games and then “pretty much destroyed everyone” to win the “D” division, said infielder Brian Elliott.
The team also included Michael Ganey, Tyrell Horton, Daniel Klanott, Jeffrey Klanott, Christian Lende, Jesse McGraw, Adrian Nash, Andre Stevens, Henry Stevens and Michael T. Ward.
Klukwan dominated its final three opponents, 16-8, 20-1 and 18-6, for the title in the lowest-ranked division of the men’s tournament.
“We were really happy,” Elliott said. “Even though it wasn’t the division we thought we should have been in, we played well.”
He credited Daniel Klanott for organizing the Klukwan team.
The Dustball tournament was open to 36 coed, 24 men’s and 12 women’s teams, with each classification arranged by skill level.
“You play two round-robin games that really don’t count as official, tournament games,” Elliott said. “Based on your results from those games, you get placed in a division.”
Klukwan’s strength turned out to be a weakness in an opening loss to Gustavus, due to a tournament requirement that “the home run rule will be progressive; at no time during a game will the number of over-the-fence home runs hit by one team be more than two above the number hit by the opposing team.”
“We hit a couple to start out, and (Gustavus) didn’t hit any the whole game,” Elliott said. “We had five home runs that counted as outs for that game, and then we ended up losing by one run.”
The team followed up that defeat with another one-run loss, before pounding its next three opponents to earn the sweatshirts and bat bags that came with the championship.
Haines and Klukwan also were represented on other teams in the tournament, such as a women’s team from Skagway and a coed one coordinated by former residents Mark and Jane Sebens.
Elliott said the top divisions in Whitehorse featured athletes competing at a level where “if there is such a thing as a professional softball player, they would qualify.”
“Skagway made it to the ‘A,’” he said. “They just have a bunch of good players, and they play a lot more over there. We don’t really practice very much, and we don’t play organized, at all, outside of a few tournaments.”
Local softball players the previous two weeks competed in tournaments in Juneau and Skagway. They’ll have a break until the Southeast Alaska State Fair later this month. Haines Junction and Dawson City tournaments also are on the schedule.