Sparks fly at Firecracker Softball Tournament
Nick Ianniello/Mineral Independent J.J. Fields takes a swing at the ball during the Traveler’s second game of the Firecracker Softball Tournament Saturday afternoon. The Traveler’s lost both their first and second games during the three game guarantee tournament, but came back to win their third game Sunday.
The annual Fourth of July Firecracker Softball Tournament took place this weekend with teams from all over the northwest competing for trophies from the St. Regis Volunteer Fire Department.
“It went real great and we got a lot of compliments about the whole tournament,” said St. Regis Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Chief Larry Kelley.
The tournament got off to an early start at 8 a.m. Saturday morning with 13 teams playing.
The teams each played three games to determine the winners. The games took place on Saturday and Sunday and Kelley said that they wrapped up the last games around 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
All of the games took place on the two softball fields at the St. Regis Park.
The Drifters, a team out of Missoula and the surrounding area, won the tournament. The Bomb Squad, a team out of Lewiston, Idaho took second and L’ OK ‘O Joes, a locally sponsored team, won third place.
The event was officiated entirely by umpires certified by the Amateur Softball Association of America. The head umpire was Barry Curtis of Missoula.
The officiators awarded a Golden Glove Award to Tracy Elam and a Most Valuable Player Award to Patrick Hiller. They also gave the Alpine Estates team from Deer Park, Wash. the Sportsmanship Award.
Kelley said that the event went off without a hitch for the most part and he was very pleased with the umpires.
“They worked out real good. Just like normal everybody wants to gripe and complain but I thought they did a fantastic job,” Kelley said.
The tournament is an annual event that Kelley said has been going on as long as he can remember.
“Everyone was really pleased with the way things turned out,” Kelley said.
Each team paid $200 to enter the event and all of the proceeds went to pay for food and the umpires at the event. Players had to be at least 18 to participate in the tournament.
Kelley said that the St. Regis Volunteer Fire Department puts the event on as a fundraiser but they usually just break even. This year he said that they made a small amount of money off the event but the main point was enjoying the weekend.
Kelley said that this was mainly because they had such a large turnout for the tournament this year. Last year there were only eight teams in the tournament.
The St. Regis Volunteer Fire Department provided concessions and beer for the participants and admission was free to anyone who wanted to watch the tournament.