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Steveston’s Men’s Fastpitch Team are proud of their performance in World Tournament.

Photo courtesy Marshall Shields

Steveston Fastpitch team placed fourth at ISC Worlds

By Matthew Cheung

Published 10:39 PDT, Fri September 27, 2024

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Last month, a local men’s Fastpitch team participated in the International Softball Congress (ISC) World Championships. Formed many years ago by a group of young fastpitch players from the Richmond Boys Fastball Association. Against some of the best fastpitch softball players around the world, the team performed outstandingly.Led by their team leader Brad Miller, the team scratch and clawed their way through a week of fastpitch softball earning a fourth place finish in the ISC-2 World Division.

The week long tournament began with a win against the Pukaist Fastball Club that saw the team win by a lopsided margin of 11-2. Yoshi Hikida hit two home runs for the Canadians, setting a match with the No.1 team in the world the New York Gremlins. Facing off against by the No.1 pitcher in the world Jack Besgrove from South Wales, Australia and lol Richmond standout Bryan Abrey; the team understood that their chances at victory were slim.

Head Coach Bruce Miller deployed a different strategy, playing every player on the roster at least two innings, giving all players the opportunity to play against the best players and team in the world. Despite a good performance as a team, the New York Gremlins showed why they were the No.1 ranked team in the world, defeating the Steveston Canadians by a score of 11-1.

Moving onto the next day, the team played the Oshweken Redmen form Ontario Canada that featured two former Team Canada pitchers. The Redmen would beat out Steveston Canadians by a narrow margin of 5-4. Learning from their defeat against the Redmen, the Steveston Canadians took on the Richmond U-23 Rays, a victory would set up a rematch against the Redmen in the next day. The Canadians would go onto defeat the Richmond Rays by a score of 6-2.

On day five of the tournament, the Steveston Canadians looked to avenge their day three loss, as they took on the Oshweken Redmen. The Canadians got off to a hot start, their pitching limited the Redmen to just three runs and their batters scored 12 total runs as a team; setting them up for a date with the Australian Tropics. Having played the Tropics twice the week prior to the tournament, and winning both matches, the team was confident a third victory was possible. Unfortunately, the Tropics played a near perfect game, shutting out the Canadians, winning by a score of 8-0. The Canadians would enter the bottom half of the playoff draw in a sudden death format.

In their first playoff game, the Canadians faced off against the Lacey A’s from Washington, USA that featured players from the USA National Development Team and former Team USA players. The Canadians were up for the challenge, shutting out the A’s offence, scoring four runs of their own. Scheduled to play the 14th ranked team in the world, the Michigan Explorers, the team started out the game facing a 4-1 deficit before battling back to tie the game at 5-5 in the top of the ninth. Unfortunately for the Canadians, the Michigan Explorers would walk off the Canadians in the bottom of the ninth inning.

The loss to the Midland Explorers, resulted in a fourth place finish for the Steveston Canadians. The team would also move up in the Men’s World Fastpitch rankings moving up to No.20 in the world. Notable players Yoshi Hikida and Clint Taylor were also recognized for their performances in the tournament; Yoshi Hikida would be named All-World Catcher and Clint Taylor named All-World Second Baseman and All-World Top Hitter.

Despite the results, the team has walked away with additional tournament experience that they will surely learn from and apply to future tournaments.