Peguis defeats RR to win Labour Day Classic

By Ken Johnson
Editor

The Rainy River Royals Labour Day Fastball tournament was a blazing success!
The host team ended up with one more team than they had hoped for, nine! Games began earlier and ran a bit later than originally planned.
RR kicked things off on Friday against Dawson, on a run that has not happened for number of years... a playoff run!
Come Sunday evening it was the Peguis Braves from Peguis First Nation, north of Winnipeg by two hours, facing off against the Rainy River Royals.
In addition to the blazing hot heat on Friday and Saturday, Peguis had a pitcher that threw a lot of heat! Bo Thomas threw a rocket of a pitch just about every time, holding the Royals to only three men on base in the finals. Thomas threw 13 strikeouts against the Royals.
Peguis’s bats also were hot. They started off with a triple at their very first bat against Royals veteran pitcher Murray Armstrong. That hit would translate to the only run for anyone until the third inning. Armstrong pitched solid until the fourth inning, allowing only one more runner to score. After three it was 2-0 for Peguis, with both teams looking for a break from the other’s pitcher.
It came in the top of the fourth when Peguis broke things open scoring five more runs to lead 7-0.
The Royals tried to find a chink in Thomas’ armor, or more appropriately his arm! But he just did not appear to tire or make mistakes. He struck three in a row out in the bottom of four.
At the top of the fifth, umpire Peanut Arnould announced that it would be the last inning on account that it was getting dark. Peguis picked up four more runs to lead 11-0 and that would be how it would end even though RR put fresh batters up at the plate and one of them, Jeff Dyck, got a base hit and ended up at third before the game was over.
Peguis finished first and earned $1,350 in prize money and the Royals were second winning $800!