Two winning teams are in Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Tournament

By Annie Rigby

The NCUSSSA softball tournament held Sunday, Oct. 4, ten teams pivoted fields opposing the teams that made the bracket to move on to the next game. The teams consisted of 8U to 14U and two high school teams.

The teams wore pink in support of breast cancer awareness month. The team Revolutions was a hard hitting and strong willed team consisting of 10 players and two coaches. The end game was against The Bandits who also had hard hitting young ladies giving the Revolution a run for the win. One team member of the Bandits hit a ball over the wall and onto back field; a homerun, but it was just one run, no one was on base.

Revolutions 14U is a team of young ladies who are filled with knowledge of the game and ready and wanting to share information about how to play the game. One young lady, Reagan, shared that to hit a ball where you want it to go depends upon the stance chosen and reiterated timing is just as important, keeping your eye on the ball and knowing when to swing the bat. Makaylee said, “If we seed number one in the first games will determine the bracket they spot.” 

Coach Mitzi Ward stood between third base and home plate cheering on the young ladies and giving them direction. A few stolen bases, ground balls, fly balls and bunts are the team’s forte when at bat. On the outfield they are quick to get the ball to the first base and home plate, pitch a quick paced ball at a speed of approximately 60 mph their gloves pop loudly as they catch a fly ball.

By the last game the young ladies became restless because the game score was close. 75 minutes to the game, the first pitch of the last game of the night began at 6:30 and ended at 9:10 p.m. The hits, the runs, the quick response of the outfield to the infield determined the winning team to receive the beautiful pink ring for each team player and a plaque to share with the coaches.

When Revolutions was announced the winning team their squeals of surprise, hugging and jumping for joy showed their excitement to have their hard work pay off.

Saturday, Oct. 10, the NCUSSSA Tournament will be held at the Loris Recreation Department/Loris Sports Complex. Again on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 17 and 18, the Halloween Tournament will be held at Loris beginning at 8 a.m. 

Brandon Harrelson, Ford Slater, Dylan Reyes and Joey Letts work the tournaments in different capacities from preparing the fields prior to the tournaments and during the tournaments they work scraping the fields, repainting the base lines and sweeping off the home plate. They are on the go at the Mane Street Grill (concessions) grilling and preparing the outdoor cooked foods. Inside are the high school students working the concessions is Landon Gerald, Keller Powers and an adult volunteer Paiton Harrelson. 

The residents of Loris are asked to visit and share the enthusiasm of the sport to show support for the Loris Sports Complex and tournaments that will be held through December.