Chad Ghostkeeper knew if his team gave him enough run support, his 46-year-old pitching arm would only have to last one more seven-inning game to wrap up the season.
That's exactly what his Falcon Contracting batters did for the veteran chucker Thursday night night at Spruce City Stadium in a game to decide the playoff champions of the Spruce City Men's Fastball Association.
Randy Potskin's double scored the first run and Falcon plated another on a passed ball in the top of the first inning to give them a 2-0 lead over the Nak'azdli Indians. Ghostkeeper had his changeup working for him and kept the Indians' bats from taking the ball for any long rides. But he couldn't relax until the late stages when Falcon scored three runs in the seventh to put the lock on their third straight championship, a 7-0 decision.
"It was close game, it was just that last inning we got (three) runs," said Ghostkeeper. "The boys got a few runs for me right off the bat in the first inning and I just threw the ball smart. I was jamming guys with lots of changeups to keep them on their toes and didn't really get hit too hard, just little grounders to our infielders and they made the plays."
Falcon infelder Theo Potskin returned from a back injury that had sidelined him a full month to drive in two runs while going 2-for-3 at the plate.
The Indians did Ghostkeeper's team a huge favour Wednesday night when they scored playoff wins over Superior Fencing and Big Guy Lake to eliminate both teams and keep Falcon first in the four-team playoff round-robin standings.
"I thought for sure we were done after our last game Tuesday night (a 9-2 loss to Superior Fencing), I didn't think we'd get into the finals but Nak'azdli pulled a couple wins together on Thursday," said Ghostkeeper. "All we needed was for them to beat one team to get in and they came through for us."
The Indians gave the ball to Chris French, 46, who pitched the better part of two games Wednesday to get them into the final. The velocity of his pitches was down a bit from the previous night and Falcon pounced on him a few times.
"They've got a tough squad, lots of young guys with talent with a couple of wily old veterans with Randy (Potskin) and Chad and Robbie Antoine has a good bat and they're a tough lineup to beat if you're not on your game," said French, who pulled himself from the game in the fifth inning and Clint Sam took over.
"We held them down for a couple innings at 2-0 but couldn't get our sticks going and Chad was throwing a good game himself. He was making it very hard for us to hit."
Sam relieved French Wednesday and earned the decision in an 11-7 win over the Big Guy Lake Blazers. French's 18-year-old son Brydon Lessard took the loss in that one for the Blazers.
Ghostkeeper said with the Canadian Native championships just around the corner next weekend in Edmonton and few players involved with Team B.C. this week at the Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg, the league decided to shut down a few weeks early this season. Usually the SCMFA playoff title is not decided until mid-August.
"After the native Canadians you're playing the same guys every night and we're just dragging it on and everyone was tuckered out, it's been a long year," said Ghostkeeper. "Next year we're going to try a few different things (like weekend games) and maybe get a couple of out-of-town teams to get into the league and maybe we'll run into August."
