Last weeks softball was dominated by the Recreational Open Slowpitch Tournament.

The tournament welcomed back a visiting side from Jersey, ‘Bean Machine’, and they were joined by 4 local teams Core Focus Rookies, Mercator, Specsavers and VWT Cubs. The Cubs being the Softball Association’s junior development players who train on a Monday night under the guidance of Development Officer Sam Stables and President Curt Taylor.

The round robin games produced some nail biting finishes and 3 of the games were decided by only 1 run. With the last round robin game of the weekend being played the tournament organiser almost had the prospect of all five teams finishing on 2 wins and 2 losses apiece. That scenario was avoided and Rookies booked their place in the final by topping the group. Runs conceded had to be used to work out the semi-final places and Cubs and Mercator narrowly beat Specsavers to fight it out for the last remaining place in the final.

Cubs played out of their skins in the semi to claw back the lead that Mercator had achieved and with the help of some walks beat their more mature opponents by 12-8.

The watching crowd wondered if Cubs could mirror their semi final win in the final but Rookies proved to be too strong and ran out comfortable winners 12-4 to pick up their 1st piece of silverware this season.

Most Valuable Players from the weekend were:

Male – Dan Marriott, Specsavers
Female – Sue Fish, Rookies

Other news:
Vazon Wholesale Trading have agreed a 3 year sponsorship deal for the development team and hopefully this will help them to enter the softball league next season. If any junior players in Year 7 and above are interested in playing, softball training is held every Monday evening at Beau Sejour Park.
In the Sportingbet Softball Leagues last week there were wins for Tornados over Pirates in Co-Ed Division 1. Mercator became sole leaders in Co-Ed Division 2 with a victory over Specsavers and in the Mens division Central Electrics came from behind to beat Titans by a single run in the last innings.