Annual softball tournament invades Superior

SUPERIOR - Two softball teams from Mineral County competed in the annual S & S Foods and Nugget Lounge Softball Tournament and while they didn’t come away with the winner’s trophy, they did gain experience they can bring to next year’s tourney.

The tournament began Saturday but the festivities began Friday as 20 teams arrived in town and made camp at the softball fields in Superior. Organizer Steve Heimbigner said it was the 21st year for the tournament that began with just a few local teams from Superior.

Heimbigner said while the teams this year from Mineral County may have had a tough time with the competition, he said they were young and would likely perform better next year as a result of the experience.

“You see improvement every game they play,” Heimbigner said. “They’re younger teams but they’re getting better.”

Heimbigner said overall, he was happy with the way the tournament went. He said this year organizers scaled back the number of teams to 20 because trying to organize three fields of play was deemed too much to handle.

“We cut it down to two fields this year because it was just too much work to get that third field ready,” Heimbigner said. “It’s run real smooth. We had the home run derby last night and the guy who won hit eight home runs I think. He really hit some bombs.”

Heimbigner said what made this tournament stand out in his mind was the people who keep coming back every year. He said the event has taken on the feel of a family reunion.

“The unique thing about this tournament is it’s the same family and friends every year,” Heimbigner said. “That’s the main reason we like it. We probably have 100 to 150 friends and family that come down every year. We only see each other once a year so it’s nice.”

One of the local players said while he was a little disappointed with the team’s results, they did manage to turn the experience into a learning opportunity. Colton Peugh said his team needed to work on their offense.

“We started all of our games really well,” Peugh said. “We just didn’t play the whole game that way. We played well in the first two innings and after that we kind of fell apart.”

The captain of Peugh’s team, T.J. Philp, said before the team’s final game what they needed to do to win was get their offensive game off the ground. Philp said the trick to getting a win was simple.

“We need to hit the ball,” Philp said. “We’ve been doing good at the beginning of the games. We need to just hit the ball and we’ll be fine.”

As of Sunday evening, Heimbigner did not have final results available.