The Cinderwood Hitmen became the first winners of the Bob Park Invitational Fastball Tournament this past weekend at the Pepsi Softball Centre.

The final matches were an exciting display of fastball, with a visiting Dawson team making it all the way to the final match against Cinderwood.

In the semi-finals the Roadhouse Pirates hammered the Hitmen right out of the start.

Batter Jeff Jensen hit a stand-up double to score teammates Duane Purych, Chris Meger and Steve Thrower.

The eventual tournament winning-Hitmen struggled at bat against Pirates' pitcher Purych and fell down to 9-2 after the third inning.

In the fourth the Hitmen finally got their legs underneath them and rallied back with some great hits, capitalizing on pitching errors from the Pirates.

Each of the Hitmen players got a chance at bat in the fourth, scoring six runs to throw the score to 9-8 for the Pirates.

To earn the win, the Hitmen scored Paul MacDonald on a single by Logan Freese in the fifth inning from third base for the tie.

Facing two outs, Brian Power hit a double for the Hitmen to score Freese for the 10-9 lead.

The game fizzled out with neither team scoring again on the strength of the dueling pitchers.

In other semi-final action, Inuvik and the Dawson Dingbats faced off, with the game going to Dawson 9-8.

Inuvik looked like the team to beat after jumping out to an early 6-0 lead in the first two innings.

The Dingbats hung on, however, after Jimmy Gattie and Louis Gerberding scored in the third to bring the score to 6-2 for Inuvik.

The Dingbats earned four more runs in the fourth to Inuvik's two making the score 8-6.

Dawson finally tied things up in the fifth on the strength of Malcolm Dewell's big hit.

Neither team scored in the sixth inning, and Inuvik continued the streak into the top of the seventh.

In the final inning, Jared Blue of the Dingbats hit to first and was able to steal to second.

Gattie sacrificed a bunt to move Blue onto third base, but the play was stalled when the next batter struck out.

Charlie Taylor then stepped up to the plate for Dawson but earned two strikes and no balls.

The game looked sure to head to extra innings until an errant pitch pushed Blue to steal home – and the win.

Dawson advanced following the 9-8 win.

The final match saw the Dawson Dingbats paired with the Cinderwood Hitmen.

The first inning was an exciting one – at least for Cinderwood fans. The team played each batter to earn four runs.

They followed by shutting down the Dingbats with pitcher Power. He earned two strike-outs and one ground-out.

In the second inning, Currie Dixon earned a stand-up double for the Hitmen. Josh Clarke walked next for the team, and Jessie Ritchie followed by hitting to score both.

But Dawson had a few tricks up their sleeves left. The Dingbats earned the third out after the Hitmen's Nathan Thomson attempted to steal second base. Shortstop Spruce Gerberding caught Thomson on the return.

After the sharp play Dawson came out strong in the third inning scoring two runs until Hitmen first basemen MacDonald earned his keep on the team with a diving catch.

"All who saw the play agreed it was the catch of the tournament,” Dixon of the Hitmen said.

The fourth inning started with Dawson down 11-4. The deficit didn't phase them as they shut down the Hitmen and earned a run, forcing an extra inning.

In the extra inning Cinderwood loaded the bases, sending the dangerous Freese to bat. He hit a triple, scoring three runs.

Power stepped up following Freese to score two more runs on a hit to right field.

The Dingbats stepped up to bat with a lofty deficit of 16-5 to make up, but were shut down by the Hitmen, ending the game on mercy rule.

Power was named MVP and Glen Tingmiak was given the honour of top batter following his three homers, one grandslam, one three-run and a solo.