Some of the world’s best fastpitch players were in Simcoe over the weekend.
Eight top-level teams from New York, Niagara, Grand Prairie, Alta., and Six Nations of the Grand River competed in the Hill United Chiefs Challenge at the Simcoe Lions field on Davis Street East. Among those competing were the Hill United Chiefs, the defending world champions from Six Nations, as well as the Ohsweken Redmen and the New York Gremlins, a team that has a deep world-championship pedigree.
“It’s great to be back that’s for sure,” said Tim Tota, a Burford businessman and farmer, who sponsors the Hill United Chiefs. “We held this tournament for a first time a couple of years ago – prior to the pandemic — and we really wanted to get it going again this year.
“We’re really pleased with the response we got from the teams and the community, especially the Simcoe Minor Baseball Association.”
The association provided volunteers to help with some of the maintenance, as well as delivering water to players. The volunteers were a big help, Tota said.
He said the plan is for the tournament to become an annual event.
“We’ve got a lot teams here over three days and I’m hearing that every hotel room in Simcoe is booked,” Tota said. “We’re thinking that something like this will really help the local economy, including restaurants.”
Hill United Chiefs play in a North American league, which will see them compete in tournaments in Green Bay, Wis., Tavistock, Ont., Ashland, Ohio and Kitchener, Ont., over the next several weeks. The American Softball Association National Championships take place in Southbend, Ind., Aug. 4-7, while the International Softball Congress World Championship takes place in Moline, Ill., Aug. 13 -20.
There are up to 50 teams that play in the North American league and there are tournaments every weekend.
Players from around the world, including Australia, New Zealand and South America, play in the league.
On Sunday, Hill United Chiefs lost 4-2 in the semifinals to the New York Gremlins. The Gremlins went on to win the tournament, beating Grand Prairie Pirates 5-4 with a walk-off home run by Andrew Kirkpatrick.
“The boys played well and we hit the ball well,” Chiefs coach Jeff Ellsworth said following the loss.
But the Gremlins “made some nice plays on the defensive side in the outfield and up the middle,” he said.
“They just made some great plays and it just didn’t work out for us.”
Despite the tournament loss, the Chiefs are focused on repeating as world champions, said Ellsworth.
“We started out the same way last year,” he said.
“We came out of the gate slow but that’s why we play seven tournaments a year.”
He said the goal is to get better with every game.
“We’ve got hitting, pitching, fielding – we’re strong in all aspects of the game.”
Ellsworth is from Prince Edward Island and was the co-captain of Canada’s national softball team in 2015. At that time, he was ranked the No. 2 top player in the world by Fastpitch World Media. He retired from playing in 2019 and joined the coaching ranks.
Ellsworth took in stride the loss to the Gremlins, who won two consecutive world championships prior to last year’s win by Hill United.
“We had some good battles with them all last year and we’re going to battle them again and again all summer long,” he said.
twitter.com/EXPVBall