Round-robin games to be played on dirt diamonds

The women’s side of the Canadian Slo-Pitch Championships kicked-off this morning, across the street from the Pepsi Softball Centre, where the men are playing.

While the 18 men’s teams – a full tournament – play on the grass diamonds at the Pepsi Softball Centre, the nine women’s teams are playing their round-robin games on two dirt diamonds across the street.

The women will play their playoff games on the grass diamonds starting Friday.

Yukon’s host team, the Yukon Titans, played their first game this morning, against the Manitoba Wild.

Roni-Sue Steinhagen said that while the team was full of jitters, they played well. The Titans fell 17-3 to the Wild.

“I don’t know if that’s (what) these butterflies in my tummy were, because our friends and family were going to be here,” she said. “But it’s really great having everybody come out and cheer and stuff, even though they’re at these diamonds, they’re still coming out to support us, which is great.”

Steinhagen said the Titans are used to playing on the dirt-only diamonds, while other teams might not be.

“It could be dangerous,” she said, noting catcher Vanessa Philpott slid hard into home to score a run. “We don’t want to injure everybody, but we also still want to play hard. You want to dive for those balls in the field, but you can’t.”

Ashley Jackson of Alberta’s Sparqs, said she was really disappointed with the diamonds.

“It’s absolutely terrible,” she said. “We expected it to be pretty bad, but we had heard that it was going to be pretty bad and actually when I got here on Friday we took a drive out here and I was extremely disappointed with the diamonds.”

When the ball hits the outfield, instead of slowing down, it picks up speed until a player catches it or it rolls into the chain-link fence surrounding the fields.

“You’re never going to get a true hop. You’re playing on dirt; gravel basically, so it’s changed the game completely,” she said. “We wear cages in the infield, most of us and you almost want them (outfielders) to be wearing it, because the ball picks up speed as it rolls, it’s crazy.”

Mike Branchaud, with Softball Canada said that the ladies aren’t playing on the grass diamonds because there is not enough time in the day.

“The diamonds across the street have been done the best they can to make them playable,” he said. “And honestly we’ve had the coaches meeting last night, there wasn’t one question or concern brought up about it.”

For the women’s players, it’s not just about the conditions of the diamond.

“We feel away from the tournament,” said Smith.

Steinhagen is disappointed the fans that come out to cheer them on, won’t see them play their round-robin games at the Pepsi Softball Centre.

“I’m sad that we aren’t playing so that people who do come out to support us can sit in the bleachers and cheer,” she said. “You can’t help but feel, I don’t know, I don’t want to say second-rate citizen, but yeah. But what can you do, the men can’t play here.”

Branchaud said the women’s round-robin diamonds are “only about a three-minute walk” away.

“So they have all the concession here, the bathrooms and the running water here,” he said. “Obviously the social part is over here as well. We see a lot of the women’s teams coming across already, so it’s all positive.”

“If there was grass for the last 150 feet across the road, I don’t think we’d be hearing too much about it,” said Branchaud. “But unfortunately, you know what, it is what it is. We just hope that once they get over here, they’re going to be happy with the diamonds over here.”

Softball Yukon president George Arcand was unavailable for comment.