The weather made it a challenge, but the Strike Out Softball Tournament – celebrating its eighth year this summer – was once again an unmitigated success, with 66 teams taking over the Overthrust Ballfields Complex earlier this month to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Formerly known as the Strike Out Cancer Softball Tournament, event organizers decided to mix things up last year, choosing Uinta County Suicide Prevention Task Force as the tournament’s beneficiary. This year, the LLS was the charitable foundation chosen, with over $8,000 raised.

“Everything went pretty well, other than the rain delay,” said Kody Blevins – who, along with Gabriela Blevins and Nicole Espy – are the co-organizers of the event. “We made it work, and we got through it; not many hiccups, other than that.”

In the men’s upper division, the Ribbies took the top spot, while McGlovin won the men’s lower bracket. Gyst was tops in the women’s division. Team IDK won the coed lower bracket title, with the Smashers winning the coed upper bracket. Rebel Click were the 2023 Beer Trophy recipients.

“We had 66 teams this year,” Blevins said. “We had teams from Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, of course – a couple of guys from Colorado were on a team, there were a few guys from Arizona. They come from all over the west.”

An event of this size can pose many logistical challenges, though weather was the culprit this year. A heavy rain on the Saturday of the event caused a delay, forcing Blevins and his team of volunteers to get creative in an attempt to make sure each game on the schedule was played.

Surprisingly, this was the first time in the history of this event that weather was a factor, though a switch to the one-pitch format allowed for all the games to be played, though it made for a late night Saturday. For those unfamiliar with one pitch softball, the batter has one pitch to put the ball in play; a miss or a foul ball is an out. Most teams playing in this format will use their own pitcher, and, as one might expect, games go quick.

“After the rain delay, we had to switch to a one-pitch format to try and get caught up,” Blevins explained. “That’s the first time we’ve had to do that for this particular tournament, and it definitely made things interesting. I was happy we were at least able to accommodate all the games and finish out the tournament.”Next up for tournament organizers is the VFW Tournament, scheduled for later this summer.

“We have the VFW Tournament coming up in August – August 18-20,” Blevins said. “That’s always a fun one, so we’re hoping to see everyone back to close out the summer.”