They say that history repeats itself; it’s also true that history is made. Last weekend both happened when the Boundary Women’s Softball league held their wind-up tournament.
The Liquor Store Chicks (LSC) from Grand Forks were undefeated in the tournament— that’s the history repeating itself part. History was made because Beaverdell finished in the money. “Yea! We got money for the first time ever!” yelled Beaverdell MVP Rosanna Zitko when they picked up their third place trophy.
The action started on Friday evening with a round robin component that saw each of the four teams in the league play the other three. On Saturday afternoon the double knockout brackets started with two games that day and the final four on Sunday.
Beaverdell had lost all three of their round robin games. That meant they had to go up against the undefeated LSC in their first double-knockout game on Saturday afternoon. When they went to bed that night they had lost four out of four and were facing elimination in a 9:30 a.m. game against Greenwood.
Greenwood had lost to Rock Creek in a double knock-out game on Saturday evening, so that meant the losing team would be cut.
The match between Beaverdell and Greenwood turned out to be the closest game of the weekend with Beaverdell taking the win 6-5—a real crowd pleaser.
Rock Creek and LSC, both undefeated, met Sunday morning. Rock Creek lost that game 13- 3, then bested Beaverdell in the 12:30 p.m. game by a score of 14-6.
Beaverdell had a great run on Sunday. They’d held on to take third place and did it in style—winning the Most Sportsman- like Team trophy as well.
The final game of the tournament had the Rock Creek team coming up against the LSC again. It started at 2:30 p.m. and was the third game in a row for the Rock Creek Team. They had been on the diamond since 11 that morning. But in the end they just didn’t have enough gas left in the tank to overcome the toughest team in the league.
Sam Ross has been coaching the LSC for eight years. “They are a very together team,” he said. “We have a good core group of ladies.”
He said each team plays the other team five times during the season. “We have quite a few games and we see the same teams over and over again. All the ladies in the league really know each other pretty well.
“The LSC are a very veteran group of ball players. They have all played ball over the years—it makes it pretty easy as a coach,” Ross added. Under different sponsors, hence different names, the Grand Forks team has won the tournament for the past four years straight—and seven of the last eight years.
The tournament bridges the communities of the Boundary and the municipalities of Greenwood and Midway got into the act too. Greenwood’s ball field was out of commission as a new concession building is nearing completion. So Midway let the Greenwood team, whose turn it was to host the tourney, hold the event at the village’s James McMynn Park. The City of Greenwood lent a bunch of their picnic tables to the occasion and the Greenwood team was able to run their beer garden. Doug and Jolly McMynn lent some shade tents and Gerry Watson ran a concession from the grill in the arena.
Results form the 2014 season and tournament:
League champs trophy, with an undefeated record in 2014: Liquor Store Chicks
Most Sportsmanlike team trophy: Beaverdell—“They kept on digging and kicking until they made it into third place,” said league president Jennifer Eaton.
Jack Popoff memorial trophy (the person or persons who did the most to put the tournament together) trophy: Shari Batt
Best Position players ($25 gift certificate to Sport Chek)
Best infielder: Gina Kucher (26 put-outs and two errors)
Best Catcher: Miranda Boltz
Best Pitcher: Cass Funk
Best Outfielder: Angelina McIver (8 for 8 on put-outs)
Best Batter: Celeste Deal (0.736 batting average)
Tournament MVP: Celeste Deal
Team MVPs are decided by each team; some track the whole season, some just the tournament weekend. They were awarded this year to Breann Hallstrom of Greenwood, Miranda Boltz of Rock Creek, Rosanna Zitko of Beaverdell and Rosemary Brooks of Grand Forks LSC.
Third place and $100 went to Beaverdell, second prize of $200 to Rock Creek, and the LSC won $300.
Umpires for the weekend were Mike Prystae, Steve Delisle, Gary Spencer, Nathan Harpur, Pete Baia, Tony Pearce and Jason Eaton.
Scorekeepers were Sarah Geen, Heather Hollingsworth and Lisa Baia. This task is usually overseen by Evy Uphill and Darlene Rexin, but they weren’t able to be around this year which prompted Eaton to say, “Am I ever thankful for Evy and Darlene— where were they this weekend? I know that from now on the controversy about which weekend to hold the tournament— we are actually just going to ask Evy and Darlene when they would like it.”