Fast-Pitch Softball: Thunder Rumble Rolls Into Town

Player’s Note by Sydney Becker: My Thunder softball program is hosting a tournament at our fields. It's called the Fall Thunder Rumble. Friday was the first game. We played Roseland, and won 5-4. It was a very exciting game. It was so cold! How much I dislike cold weather, I don't think I can put it in words. Since it was so cold, after the game we went to Dunkin Donuts. The apple cider was really good. I recommend it. The tournament continues tomorrow, and finishes on Sunday. (You can read Sydney's journal here).

The Livingston National Little League & Softball’s Thunder Travel Softball Program is hosting a softball tournament this weekend at the Livingston National Little League complex for girls fast-pitch softball teams, ages 10 & under and 12 & under. 

Fast pitch softball teams from Cedar Grove, Verona, Hillsborough, Montclair, Roseland and Middletown, as well as “club” teams such as the Junction Girls, Bad Girlz, and the Psycho Chicks, will be traveling to Livingston to compete in this first-ever girls fast-pitch softball event. 

After each game, Most Valuable Player medals will be awarded to a player on each team who showed the greatest effort or made an outstanding play. Players on the opposing team will decide who wins this award; coaches and parents don’t get to vote. Individual and team trophies will be given to the first and second-place finishers in both age groups.

“Judging by the level of interest, I believe, weather permitting, this tournament will be a huge success,” said Morris “Mo” Altchek, tournament coordinator and president of the Livingston.  “We had to turn teams away.”

Fast-pitch softball is considered the most competitive form of softball there is with an estimated 3 ½ million players in the U.S. with many more worldwide. Fast-pitch softball was also the form played in the Olympic Games in 1996, 2000, 2004 and in 2008 and is the form played in college and internationally.

The majority of the proceeds from the tournament will go to the Livingston program to help offset costs of field improvements and part will also go to the Livingston High School Softball program to help defray the cost of the team’s spring training trip to Florida.

“Although an arduous process, with the support of the entire Thunder organization, this is something we’d like to entertain every year,” Altchek said.