Members of the White Bear Drummers, a group of young people from We’koqma’q First Nation who have been practising together for a year now, played the Honour Song during the opening ceremonies of the Division 2 boys slo-pitch provincial tournament on Friday.
June 12, 2024
-by Bill Dunphy
When it comes to slo-pitch softball, it’s hard for Inverness County teams that play one month each year to compete against mainland teams with dedicated baseball and softball players.
Five county teams competed at various School Sport Nova Scotia provincial slo-pitch tournament on Friday and Saturday and only the Dalbrae Dragons girls team came home with medals.
The girls were in Stellarton for their tournament and won both their games on Friday to ensure a semifinal berth on Saturday. They defeated Horton 13-11 in the opener and followed that up with a 12-7 win over Auburn Drive.
However, a semifinal loss on Saturday had them play for bronze, which they did, beating the North Nova host team. Saturday scores were unavailable.
Yarmouth won the Division 1 banner, with Northumberland taking silver.
The Dalbrae Dragons boys teams hosted the Division 2 tournament at the We’koqma’q First Nation community ball field.
The opening ceremonies saw Dalbrae student Taya MacDonald play a march on her fiddle as the teams took to the field.
That was followed by a new We’koqma’q drum group, the White Bear Drummers, play the Honour Song as Grand Council Keptin Phillip Prosper performed a smudging ceremony.
Words of welcome were extended by a number of dignitaries including: Dalbrae principal Carol Smith, We’koqma’q councillor Brandon Poulette, SRCE representative Robert Goyetche, Inverness County councillor John MacLennan, and School Sport Nova Scotia regional director Aurel LeLièvre.
This was followed by an outstanding instrumental version of O Canada, played by Taya MacDonald and Finley MacDougall on guitar.
The Dragons took the field in their opening game against the Northeast Kings Titans.
NKEC took a 3-0 lead to start the game but the Dragons responded with three runs of their own in the bottom half, led by a two-run double by Finley MacDougall and an RBI double by Kenzie Batherson.
The Titans scored at least two runs every inning which was the difference in the game, holding Dalbrae scoreless in the second and fourth innings.
However, the Dragons rallied in the fifth with five runs and not recording an out.
Liam Sutherland and Kenny Gillis started the inning with back-to-back singles. They were followed by RBIs from Hunter MacDonald, Owen Heukshorst, Luke MacEachern and Kenzie Batherson with a double.
Gavin Spears was intentionally walked to load the bases but MacDougall made them pay with a base hit to score the maximum five runs to make it just a 12-10 lead for the Titans.
Due to games having a time limit, the sixth inning was made the open-ended inning where teams can score all the runs they can, but unfortunately the Dragons couldn’t duplicate their fifth-inning run and lost 17-11.
Dalbrae lost their next game 19-9 to Liverpool and were mathematically eliminated from semifinal action on Saturday. In their final round-robin game, they lost 21-9 to Hants North.
Liverpool went on to beat Hants North in the final to win the Division 2 banner.
In Division 2 girls provincials, the SAERC Saints lost both their Friday games, 9-3 to Middleton and 10-7 to Amherst.
Barrington defeated Northeast Kings in the final, with Eastern Shore taking bronze.
In Division 3 boys action at Lockeport, a young Inverness Rebels squad battled their way to the bronze medal game, only to lose 21-18 to Marine Drive.
The Rebels were 2-1 in round-robin play to earn a semifinal berth where they were edged 10-9 by North Queens in extra innings. Had they won that game they would have played Beau-Port in the final, a team they beat in the Highland Region championship.
Beau-Port, however, went on to win it all, defeating North Queens for the Division 3 banner.
And in the Division 3 girls tournament at Tatamagouche, the Inverness Rebels came up short in going 0-3 in the round-robin. Friday losses to Par-en-Bas 7-4 and Hants North 15-5 mathematically eliminated them from semifinals on Saturday.
Tatamagouche went on to win the Division 3 banner, defeating Marine Drive in the final. Oxford won the bronze.
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