While the blue and red teams from the USA were playing in the London Series, Northwest England hosted a beautiful sunny day for softballers competing on the second North West Series tournaments of 2023.
The NWS tournaments are designed to give local teams more opportunities to play softball. Teams from all parts of the country are welcome to enter for either one day, or for all three tournaments that span the outdoor playing season.
The brave Screwballs from Manchester jumped to the higher Comp level of the tournament for the first time and looked at home there. They played several very competitive games against their more experienced counterparts, and ended up grabbing third place. BaseballSoftballUK North West Development Manager Luis Arrevillagas remarked, "I was very excited to see the Screwballs playing Comp this weekend; I know they train hard and are very disciplined and receive great coaching from Dan Strayer and John Reeves. A team full of rookies playing with the best shows that their hard work is paying off. Hats off to the coaches and players!"
Dan Strayer from the Screwballs added, "It was an amazing experience, actually it was pretty damned fun. We were nervous in the first inning, and then we just exhaled and started to play very well. It was a neat experience!"
The teams played a round-robin in either Comp or Rec level, then played semifinals and finals for the sought-after medals. After plenty of runs and amazing plays, the top spots were grabbed by:
Comp
- Meerkats - Manchester
- Mavericks - Manchester
- Screwballs - Manchester
Rec
- Bats - Liverpool/Manchester
- Coyotes - Leeds
- Seagulls - Manchester
The weekend's event manager, Linni Mitchell, commented: "Another sun-filled tournament in the North West! A huge thank you to our umpires -- Fliss Fagan, Ian Caird and Daniel Simpson -- for their efforts in the heat! We look forward to welcoming teams to the last tournament of this series on 22 July."
NWS3 is coming up on 22nd July, and Comp teams can register here (REC is full).