A late surge from the Inuvik Huskies was not enough to overcome the Giants' massive second-inning rally in fast-pitch softball action over the weekend.

The Giants, a Whitehorse-based club which plays in the burgeoning fast-pitch league, hit for a staggering 11 runs in the second inning and held on for a 14-12 final score to win the Men's Fast-Pitch Tournament championship, held at the Pepsi Softball Centre on Sunday.

Giants manager and designated hitter, Mike Tuton, said you can never count this team from Inuvik out of any ball game.

"These guys will travel anywhere for a fastball tournament,” Tuton said. "Even when we put 11 runs up in the second inning, we knew we had to keep going. These guys will claw back the whole way. We were real close to ending it in the fifth there, but they just wouldn't go away; they just kept hitting the small ball and moving the runners and playing the game the way it's suppose to be.”

Tuton is referring to putting the game away via mercy rule with a seven-run lead

after five innings.

But the Giants failed to put the game away at 12-7 in the fifth.

Tuton attributed that failure to the Huskies' tenacity.

They're a really good ball club, they're a good hitting team, but our bats just took off this weekend,” Tuton said, adding of the difficulty of maintaining a lead:

"It's a bit of a rollercoaster. … Any extra at bats you give these guys you're just asking for trouble. I mean, you saw it; in the fifth inning they crawled back in and scored enough to keep it going. They did it again in the sixth, and then in the seventh they darn near came back.”

Giants pitcher Brian Clark, who on Saturday pitched a no-hitter in an 8-0 win, put the game away with two runners stranded on base, one in scoring position.

Clark, now a Vancouverite, made his return to the team he played for when the original softball league was running.

"We gave him the ball this weekend,” Tuton said. "We wanted to win it with him on the mound.”

Huskies manager Donny Hendrick knew how close his club was to stealing the three runs needed to win the championship.

"One hit away,” Hendrick said. "This guy usually hits home runs; he just got jammed there.”

Kyle Kuptana had a two-run home run and Roy Kasook had a solo shot down the stretch.

The Huskies have played together for the past three years, and won the Northwest Territories championships in 2010.

The club will head to Winnipeg for the Western Canadian Championships next year.

At last year's Men's Fast-Pitch Tournament in Whitehorse, the Huskies finished fourth.

This tournament helps the club improve for Outside competition, Hendrick said.

For Tuton and the boys on Sunday, the trophy was enough.

"That's one heck of a Sunday,” Tuton said. "That's kind of the way we wanted to finish it.”