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Monday, April 10
Rotary Invitational Beats the Weather for a Great Weekend
In a fitting team effort, everyone involved with the 5th Annual Murray Rotary Club Invitational youth baseball tournament battled through the gamut of weekend elements to play the entire schedule of games in a revised Saturday-Sunday format. “This tournament was played basically as scheduled on Saturday and Sunday, which was something of a miracle itself,” said Rotarian and tournament director Tab Brockman. “While we did have to play games late into the Saturday night cold, all games were played and noone seemd to mind. Everyone was just amazed and pleased to be playing after our serious storms. “Then we had an absolutely beautiful day for baseball on Sunday and the competition was as great as the weather,” Brockman said. However, with Thursday night rain and Friday night storms the tournament’s status was very much in doubt heading into the weekend. Field tarps placed on all seven parks fields on Thursday night did their job and allowed most of the games to start close to on-time on Saturday morning. “A big thanks goes to our Calloway Co. Jailer Phil Hazle and his Class D inmates who perform community service our in a variety of capacities on a daily basis. Their help was invaluable in getting the tarps removed very early Saturday morning and allowing us to maintain our playing schedule,” Brockman said. “Their efforts helped save the Rotary Club tournament,” he added. For the second time in as many Murray spring tournaments, the 10-under Murray Bucs carted home the hardware on Sunday afternoon. The Bucs defeated the Hancock Co. RiverBats 13-6 in the championship game to complete a 5-0 weekend of work. In other results, the West Ky. Warriors took the 8-under machine pitch division with a 19-12 slugfest win over the brand new Martin (Tenn.) Minors. The Southern Ind. Spikes won the 9-under division 3-1 over the Sikeston (Mo.) Bandits. The Ky. Bearcats Americans, under the coaching of former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Paul Kilgus, took the 11-under division crown in a 9-4 win over the West Ky. Patriots. The Southern Ind. Spikes were winners in the 12-under division with an 8-2 victory over the Paducah Storm. The 13-under championship went to the West Tenn. Warriors in an 11-3 win over the West Ky. Cyclones. Finally, the 14-under championship went to the Lexington (Tenn.) Tigers via a 9-6 win over the Southeast (MO) Renegades. The next local tournament is the Third Annual Purchase Area Championships April 28-30. The Purchase Area Championship is a fundraiser for the local Youth Sports Association and will feature recreational league teams from the local YSA and others from around the region. The next travel team tournament will be Memorial Day weekend when the 10th Annual Memorial Tourism Shootout takes the diamonds in Murray and Mayfield May 26-28.
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