BILLINGS — The image says it all: Native American softball players from Team Mon-Dak bask beneath a collage of international flags on the diamond, fingers raised in a No. 1 salute as they celebrate back-to-back international championships — a hard-won, heartwarming victory dedicated to manager Albert Gros-Ventre’s late wife, Bekki.
Team Mon-Dak claimed gold the first week of January at the USSSA (United Specialty Sports Association) International Challenge Cup at the Space Coast Complex in Viera, Florida, defeating New Mexico 17-11 in the championship.
"As soon as the third out hit, I threw my scorebook in the air and fell to my knees," Gros-Ventre recalled to MTN Sports.
The triumph came just months after Gros-Ventre unexpectedly lost his wife Bekki (Blaine) in March. She suffered complications from a stroke at age 54.
Watch the story behind Team Mon-Dak's inspirational repeat:
"Out of the blue, she had a brain bleed above her right ear," Gros-Ventre explained.
He described how her only symptom that day was a painful headache before her condition rapidly deteriorated.
"She was just kind of like in a daze and it freaked me out," he said.
He rushed Bekki from their home outside Lodge Grass nearly two hours to a Billings hospital, where she spent 28 days before passing away.
When the international tournament approached earlier this month, Gros-Ventre's teammates rallied around their grieving manager.
"I cried like a baby and who wouldn't have? And then they cried alongside me and that's when the guys said, 'hey, we're going to do this for Bekki,'" he said.
The team, comprised of players from Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming, competed against approximately 40 states plus teams from Latin America. In this league, pitchers are allowed creative techniques to throw off batters.
"You can fake. You can turn this way, through it behind your back, under your leg," Gros-Ventre playfully demonstrating during a Zoom call.
After falling in the first championship game, the team huddled before the decisive if-necessary game with a rallying cry honoring Bekki's memory.
"One, two, three, Bekki! And then that game was history," Gros-Ventre said of the moment.
Following the victory, emotions overwhelmed the manager and his players.
"I just cried and cried and they came and picked me up, and group hugs," he said.
Gros-Ventre revealed that teammates Tyson Fox and Josh Smith had also lost loved ones, making the championship victory a tribute to all their departed family members.
The picture says it all.
