Girls Softball: No Grumbles in This Rumble

It was beautiful weekend for softball as parents and players packed their equipment bags and traveled to the Livingston National Little League & Softball fields to participate in the inaugural Livingston Fall Thunder Rumble Tournament. 

Beginning Friday night, battled it out for position and the right to play in the championship game on Sunday. 

Many older Thunder players came to staff the snack bar while coaches cooked food and groomed the fields. Indeed, many board members extended their shifts and watched along with other fans of softball who came to the fields to take in the sights, sounds and smells of a softball tournament. The smell of the sausage and peppers emanating from the grill was by far the favorite. 

Participating in the games were four Livingston Thunder teams, the Caldwell Chiefs, three Cedar Grove Panthers teams, the Middletown Coyotes, the Bad Girlz, the Psycho Chicks, two Verona teams, Montclair, two Hillsborough Hustle teams, the Junction Girls, and the Roseland Knights. 

By the end of qualifying round of play, four teams remained out of the 18 that started the tournament on Friday to play in the two championship games on Sunday.  Two teams from the 10-U age group and two from the 12-U age group remained to battle for the championship.  In the first game, the Middletown Coyotes faced the Caldwell Chiefs for the 10-U Championship and the Coyotes defeated the Chiefs by the score of 5–0.  In the 12-U Championship game, the Hillsborough Hustle lost their battle against the Psycho Chicks by a score of 14-1. 

While praise for everyone who worked on running the tournament is well deserved, no tournament could be successful without the great play and sportsmanship that was demonstrated by the players and coaches invited to participate in this tournament.  Every team’s coaches and players were unanimous in their praise for this tournament as well as their desire to return to play in it again next year.