It was women’s day at the inaugural Slowpitch Bayshore Home Health Challenge Cup, which was Parksville’s version of the “Battle of the Sexes,” held at the Parksville Community Park.
The Unstoppables, a women’s team that consist of players aged 60 to 70 years old, lifted the trophy after they clipped their male counterparts, the Ravens, whose players are 70 years old and over.
It was a closely contested and exciting match that had spectators at the edge of their seats as it went down the wire. After six innings of action, the score was tied 13-13. In the final inning, the Ravens went first and needed to earn some runs but the Unstoppables surprisingly shut them out, which had the crowd cheering in delight for the women’s team.
In the bottom of the frame, the first at bat was walked and was advanced to third base by Mary Morton who had a double. With no outs and two runners in scoring position, Gloria Young drove home the winning run to give Unstoppables a 14-13 victory over the men.
“To beat the men, the kick the men’s butts it feels awesome,” said Young. “It was so much fun. We play with those guys all the time so there was a lot of banter back and forth before the game.”
The challenge was more than just a game, said Young. It was intended to demonstrate that just because you’re a senior you can’t play.
“It’s all seniors out here playing ball,” said Young, who has had four heart surgeries in the last year. “Everybody is out here. The fact that we’re at this age and still doing this and we’re not sitting out home. There’s also the camaraderie that gets us going.”
The Ravens were down 13-7 at one point and fought back in the fifth to tie it up 13-13. But they were unable to muster up any more runs after that.
“We were happy we came back unfortunately we just couldn’t quite pull it out in the end,” said Ian Blake. “It was a lot of fun. The women’s team had a lot of good players.”
Blake said they’re not sure if they will be able to live this down and are expected to get a lot of “ribbing” in the days ahead in the regular league.
“We will just have to deal with it,” said Blake.