Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
First place and defending champions, Elevated.
Second place, Cockriders.
Mixed Nuts was presented with the Sportsmanship award
Through the sun, the wind and the rain, the 12th Annual Andy Shaw Memorial Softball Tournament was again successfull. Teams from Kimball, Scottsbluff and Cheyenne joined the fun at the ball fields, this past weekend.
Elevated, formerly known as The Zone, were back to defend their 2017 title. The Outlaws, Engstrom Farms, Moonshiners, and Shockers were the local teams challenging the defenders, along with Mixed Nuts, Smash n' Dash, One Hit Wonder, Cockriders and Yank Deez.
The Saturday morning round-robin play was pushed back an hour to kick off the day following Friday nights down pour at the fields. Games started at 9 a.m. and ran late through Saturday night with only a small bit of rain.
Each team was guaranteed five games throughout the weekend, the first three games being round-robin play to determine the seeding of the teams.
First round of tournament play kicked off around 5 p.m. Saturday evening for the double-elimination bracket. The temperature didn't break any records this past Saturday for it was a pretty mild day, still many ball players headed down to a camper they drug out to the fields or a nice canopy to stay cool the rest of the afternoon. Games rolled on through the night until about 9 p.m.
An early morning once again for the teams, yet a chilly one, with minimal sun and cloudy as far as the eye could see. The first few games were played before some nasty dark clouds rolled in with lighting striking a little too close for comfort. The games were stoped and would resume after the storm had passed. At about an hour of waiting for the rain to stop, the call was made to start the tournament back on but only to use one field. A muddy mess was an understatement for the small field Sunday mid-morning. Since only one field would be in use it was also decided that instead of starting off at bat with one ball and one strike this would be played now as a "one pitch tournament" to speed up the games as the clock was ticking down the longer the fields were wet. The big field needed worked before it was ready to resume play yet again. Members of local and out of town teams helped Kevin and Carrie Wynne get the field back into playing shape. Even one of the youngest Shaw family members, Kamryn, daughter of Cory and Jen Saw, was out on the field trying her hardest to stay upright out of the mud and help get the show on the road.
The games started once again and the tournament rolled on the rest of the afternoon. A team that seemed most had trouble stoping was Elevated out of Scottsbluff, Elevated rolled into the finals to play the second match of the day with Cockriders out of Cheyenne, Wyoming. During the twos first meeting it was Elevated that came out on top.
Cockriders defeated Smash n' Dash to head to the finals 15-10. They Cheyenne team was hoping to win the first championship game to send the finals into one more game before the winner was crowned, since Elevated hand no losses on the weekend. The young Cheyenne team came up short, falling to Elevated 27-7 in the single championship game when the evening finally came to a close.
Another year in the books for the Andy Shaw Memorial, where the community remembers Andy and gets a fun chance to play some ball and give back to a great cause.
