In our print edition of this article the headline incorrectly shouted out “Greenwood ball tourney a big hit”. The tournament was actually held in Rock Creek.
The same article also mentioned Boundary Creek Secondary School. Of course it should have read Boundary Central Secondary School.
We regret the errors.
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There was plenty of rec co-ed softball action on the weekend as the Rock Creek Rednecks hosted a tournament that brought together five teams – two from Kelowna and three from the Boundary.
The round robin component gave each team four games, with the best four moving on to double-knockout competition on Sunday.
The host Rednecks were from Rock Creek, the Green Necks team combined players from Greenwood and Grand Forks, while Beaverdell and Grand Forks ballplayers teamed up to put Nuts and Honeys on the field.
The two Kelowna teams were Colleen’s Twisted Recycled Cowboys and the Bullet Dodgers. The two Okanagan teams had been pulled together by friends and relatives and when the rosters were drawn up it was like family feud on the field – with cousins, siblings, wives and husbands all mixed up between the two.
When the two teams met in the final game there was one player on the Cowboys who wanted to use his favorite bat, so he went over to the equipment rack at the Dodgers dugout and got it.
In fact, many on the Kelowna team had grown up in the Boundary – coming from Davidson and Van Oyen families up in Christian Valley.
The four teams going into the Sunday play off round were the Rednecks, Twisted Cowboys, Bullet Dodgers and the Green Necks.
The Rednecks played the Twisted Cowboys at 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., with a 2 p.m. game against the Bullet Dodgers. The local team was able to win their first but couldn’t get past either Kelowna team in their afternoon games.
In order for the Twisted Cowboys to earn their spot in the finals, after their loss in the first game of the double knockout, they had to beat the Green Necks at 12:30 p.m. and the Rednecks at 3:30 p.m. They were able to do it, but it meant they had little rest before having to take the field at 5 p.m. for the finals against a somewhat rested Bullet Dodgers.
The Dodgers played against Nuts and Honeys in the last of the round robin games early Sunday morning. They then went on to win two double knockout games (at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.) to be placed in the finals against the Cowboys.
The Green Necks, who had won only one of their four games in the round robin, were not up to the difficult task of playing back-to-back games against both Kelowna teams in the Sunday double knockout.
The final game started with the Dodgers scoring three unanswered runs in the first and another in the third inning. It wasn’t until they were down by four runs that the Cowboys started scoring with five in the bottom of the third, four in the fourth and another two in the sixth. The Cowboys ended up winning by a score of 11-4.
“It was a lot of fun with family and friends and that’s what we came here for,” Don Siebert said, speaking on behalf of the Cowboys.
The tournament was generously supported by local businesses that provided enough swag for the team to offer 20 raffle baskets. There were also 50/50 draws, a Bavarian Garden and a concession by the Boundary Central Secondary volleyball team.
“Proceeds go to the Rednecks ball team,” said Jen Eaton, who was one of the main tournament organizers. “We haven’t won any money in a lot of years so we decided to have a fundraiser,” she added with a grin. She said this was the first summer-time coed softball tourney in Rock Creek in many years. She added that it was successful and she hopes to do it again.
“We especially want to thank the umpires and scorekeepers,” said Eaton.