Early Sunday morning, under a bluebird sky, the Inuvik Native Yankees stepped onto the pitch for the first time at a Canadian Slo-Pitch Championships.

The team, representing the Northwest Territories, faced the Alberta 3 team, Roadhouse.

The game was short-lived, only three innings, as the Roadhouse took down the Yankees 41-7.

“This level here, we’re finding it a little difficult,” said team manager and athlete Donald Hendrick. “This is ‘A’ ball, so we got smoked 41-7 this morning.”

They had the rest of the morning and afternoon to refocus before their second game, against Yukon’s host team, Dave’s Cleaning Crew, which they lost.

“We’re struggling at the bats,” said Hendrick. “Our defence is pretty good.”

In their second game, the team had only two RBIs, from pitcher Kyle Kuptana and Hendrick.

The team’s players are all from Inuvik and have played a bunch of ball together.

“We play together lots,” said Hendrick as the team waited to have their photo taken after their second game. “We play fastball, we play softball, slo-pitch.”

Not all the players he’d had lined up could make the trip to Whitehorse however, work commitments came first.

With eight guaranteed games, the team is hoping to win at least one.

“Day one, we’re a little excited to be here and get the nerves off. Now, I think with two games in, hopefully we coast along here,” said Hendrick. “It should be an interesting next couple days.”

GUNS FEELING ROUGH

In their first two games as Team Yukon, the P & M Recycling Guns did not look like the confident team that had won the men’s slo-pitch tournament earlier this summer.

They lost their first game in four innings, 28-6 to the B.C. 3 team, the Rockies. Brian White scored four RBIs, while Matt Kramer had two.

Their afternoon effort wasn’t much better, dropping the four-inning game to Alberta’s Evolution Sports Rockies 36-13.

“The first day was pretty rough I would say,” said third baseman Joe Vigneau Sunday night. “We kind of expected to hit a little better. We kind of started off slow. Our defence was there, we just needed to hit.”

The Guns take on the Saskatchewan Cubs tonight on Diamond 1 at 6 p.m. The Cubs are 1-1.

“You need to put up 20 runs every single time in order to even have a chance against these teams and we’re not there yet,” said Vigneau. “We played better this game than our last game. We’re trying. We’re trying. We’re getting better.”

DAVE’S ENJOYING HOMETOWN CROWD

Yukon’s host team posted one in the win column yesterday, with their victory over the Northwest Territories Inuvik Native Yankees.

“All the guys came out and they were swinging their bats,” said player James Semaschuk. “Our defence was going to take care of itself, but hitting is always something that we have to do well at this tournament.”

They put up 17 runs.

Dave’s plays their first two-game day today as the team took on the B.C. BusDrivers this morning. They lost the game 25-5.

Next, they’ll face the Manitoba Fuel at 6:30 p.m. tonight on diamond 2.

“It’s kind of just getting that first one off your chest, first win too,” said Semaschuk. “The guys know what to expect for the games coming up.”

Semaschuk enjoyed playing for a hometown crowd.

“It’s always nice being a home team in Whitehorse, because everyone in the community usually comes out and rallies behind you,” he said. “It was nice we could give one win back to the community.”