Another road trip, another victory for the Yellowknife Merchants senior men's fastball team.
The Merchants, made up of players from the Yellowknife Fastball League, are back home after winning the John Cho Cup invitational tournament on June 29 thanks to a 5-4 win over the Grande Prairie Masters Pirates out of Alberta in the final. They overcame a 4-0 deficit in the title contest with Chad Hinchey playing the hero's role as his three-run homer in the sixth inning put the Merchants up for good.
Hinchey said it was one of those pitches that sat up nicely for him.
"It was centre-cut and those are the pitches you're looking for when you're up," he said. "I didn't go up there looking for the home run - I just wanted to hit one hard and keep things rolling - but getting it done with one swing is always good."
The Merchants were part of a 17-team double-knockout format, meaning two chances to get to the final. The format is such that if you keep winning, you'll play very few games, but lose early on and you'll have to win a bunch of games in the B side just to get back to the A side.
They began their march to the title on June 27 with their first two games versus the Vernon Bannockslaps and the Westbank Cardinals, both of which ended up in victory. That put them into the quarter-final the following day where they played the Cree Valley Hitmen, which the Merchants won by a score of 8-0.
The win over the Hitmen guaranteed the Merchants no worse than third place as they went into Sunday's finale where they started by meeting the Pirates in the first match-up between the two teams.
That's where the Merchants tasted defeat for the first time, 3-2, but it was a silver lining of sorts, said Garrett Hinchey.
"It was a loss where it meant we only had to play one extra game," he said. "We still had a chance to get back to the final and we were still in good shape."
That couldn't be said for the Cardinals, who were the opposition in that semifinal contest.
Garrett Hinchey said they knew they were getting a tired team.
"They're playing their third game of the day and they were wiped," he said. "Our thinking was just get out there and put the final nail in their coffin, so to speak. The final score wasn't indicative of how those guys played because they still came at us strong."
It ended in an 7-0 win for the Merchants and it was off to play the Pirates for all the enchiladas.
The Merchants sent Ryan Simpson, a pick-up player from Calgary, out to start the final. He was roughed up in the first inning, giving up four runs as the Pirates marched out to an early 4-0 lead.
"I think Ryan was a bit too charged up for that game," said Garrett Hinchey. "There were some nerves, but we still felt we could overcome that, though that was about all we could give up because if we gave up any more, it's going to be much tougher."
After getting one of those runs back shortly after, Brian Couvrette stepped up in the fifth inning and hit an inside-the-park solo home run to cut the deficit to 4-2. Chad Hinchey would follow that with his three-run bomb in the sixth after two Merchants reached base to give them the lead they would never relinquish.
Simpson went five innings in what Garrett Hinchey called a gutsy performance before handing the ball off to Steve Thomas, who pitched the sixth and seventh innings. Thomas had pitched a bulk of the games for the Merchants and was coming on for what's known as the six-out save.
"Steve told us before the final that he probably couldn't go a full seven (innings)," said Garrett Hinchey. "He was basically running on fumes, but he shut those guys down."
It came down to the bottom of the seventh inning and the Pirates having the tying run standing on third base 60 feet away with two outs, but Thomas was able to get the strikeout and give the Merchants the title.
The Merchants also did well individually as Thomas was named the tournament's top pitcher, while Couvrette won the Golden Glove as the top defensive player.
Chad Hinchey won the most valuable player honours, but he said it was more exciting to get the team win.
"Three of us winning those honours is great, but I know for a fact that we're more excited to win it all," he said.
His brother agreed.
"We all pulled for each other, we all stayed together and just picked each other up all weekend," said Garrett Hinchey. "I'm personally still not over it because winning like that is awesome. We always think our competitive days are behind us as we get older, but when you win a tournament in the fashion that we did, you're on a high for a while."
