The Pink Sox team also represented Whitehorse in Skagway at the 4th of July tourney July 1-3. The Star spoke with the young team’s Cassidy Cairns and Charlie Hayes.

Hayes explained how they ended up in the tournament.

“We actually started the team last year, the Pink Sox. For most of us, it was our first year playing. About half of our team grew up playing softball and the other half had never played before. We originally just started in co-ed and this year, we wanted to do a couple tournaments, so we went to Skagway.”

Cairns added “We played the season last year – that was our first season – but there was no tournaments because of COVID.

“Neither of us have played in the tournament before. This was our entire team’s first time playing but a lot of us have been there for many many years because all of our parents have played there. Our parents did men’s league and women’s league and co-ed also.”

Hayes said the tournament went very well overall for them.

Although we didn’t win any games – and we had six games – they were all super-fun. We played our heart out and we had a blast. It was awesome ... the hospitality was awesome.

“All the teams, they loved us and they were cheering us on. We had so many supporters. But overall, it was a win, even though we didn’t get – I think it was maybe the results we were expecting, considering it was our first year playing and there’s some pretty good teams there that have been doing it for years. But we want to keep going every single year after this. We’re in it now.”

Cassidy added “We definitely lack the experience that other teams have, so that’s something we need to build up.”

She said the games were very competitive.

“They had a lot more stronger hitters than we did.”

Hayes added, “The first team we played was Haines (PBR). We played really good ball against them. That was our first game. We had a lot of hiccups and a lot of dumb plays but we were just working out the kinks and getting used to the ball fields, the new bats and then we kind of progressively got better after that. We weren’t used to playing on all-grass pitches ... the ball behaves quite differently when it lands in grass as opposed to dirt.

“And there’s different bats because the regulations are different for the United States ... they had to be APA approved. All of the bats that we brought were non-valid because they weren’t single-wall.”

Cairns said “Even though we thought we checked that before we left.”

Hayes recalled “We got there and they told us none of these were good but thank God for the – the other teams were so nice that they let us use all of their bats. They had extra bats. There were a few teams that accumulated a couple bats for us to use for the tournament. It was very nice.”

Cairns said overall, they kind of expected to get the results that they did.

“Definitely. We knew we would have a challenging time against these teams, especially because they’re way older than us. Our team is between 19 to 21, so we’re really young. It’ll take a bit for us to get up there. We’re going to Haines in August so that’s another great tournament for us to gain experience and see the different playing fields.”

Hayes related “They came to us after the ball tournament and they said they enjoyed having us there so much that they wanted us to come to Haines ... we’re really excited for that. We need some more practicing in our co-ed ... over the next four, five weeks or so and hopefully go out there and play a bit better.”

Cairns added “It was really awesome and a few umps came up and asked for our picture because they were really shocked how young we were and they had umped our parents previously so they were like ‘that’s really cool to see another generation come through.’”

It was pointed out that the Pink Sox are a second generation team.

“Exactly,” agreed Hayes. “We’re starting a new legacy.”

Cairns said they were definitely planning on playing in the tourney next year.

“It was a great tournament. And it wasn’t just the baseball that made it good, too. It was just seeing a bunch of people and touring Skagway, we don’t do that super-often. And the great weather – it was all around a good time.”

Unfortunately, the Pink Sox missed the deadline for the Dustball tourney.

Hayes said “We’re trying to get a spot but we missed the deadline. We would have loved to play, even though a lot of us are battered and bruised after that one (Skagway).”