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Show Softball Players Enter Tourney At Cottonwood By DAVE WIGHAM Starting this Friday, July 15 some local softball players will be participating in one of the biggest tournaments in the nation at the Cottonwood Complex in Salt Lake City. THE tournament is the Pioneer Day's Invitational which is an American Softball Association sanctioned event. The tourny itself is run by the Valley Sports Association. This tournament has become one of the top in the nation. Ken Hackmeister, one of the local players in the tourny, noted, "This tournament tour-nament is the biggest quality tournament in the nation. There are other good tournaments tour-naments but only eight teams are involved." EIGHTEEN teams from Utah, New Mexico, California, Califor-nia, Texas, Washington and Idaho are entered in the toumy which will run through Saturday and Sunday. Playing on Utah teams from the Davis County area are Ken Hackmeister who catches for the ever tough Tri Arc club. In previous years this club has been known as The Sizzler, they would be considered a favorite in this event but two of their top players will be out of town competiting in an All-American All-American game. ALSO ON the Tri Arc team is another Bountiful resident, Myron Anderson. Myron has been an All-American and has been a main cog on the team for many years. The other top Utah team from Salt Lake City is the FMA Roadrunners, each year this club finishes on or near the top of the league and this tournament. Pitching for the club is Val Petersen, a long time resident of Bountiful. Val recently moved to Cedar City but still considers himself him-self a Davisite. GARY Cleverly holds down the infield along with Val Cahoon for the FMA club. Gary is out of Viewmont High while Val was a Davis High product. Gary was selected All-American last season and he too has a chance to go out of town this weekend to play in the All-American classic. Another Salt Lake club, Page Prake is also in the event with the Cullimore brothers, Val and Brent, on the club. Val is relatively new at the fast pitch game but reports are he's already one of the better catchers in the league. Brent has played more and is a fine fielder and hitter. UTAH Noodle out of Ogden features many ex-Davis players on the club. At third base is Davis baseball coach, Kent Draayer, shortstop is Steve Jewkes, and second base is Brent Hovey. In the outfield for the club is Scott Mounteer. This club looks like an all Davis High All-Star club. The other Ogden club in the event is Shaw Construction, one of Clearfield's coaches, Mike Hansen is the second baseman for the club. ACTION IN the round robin format begins on Friday night. The teams are divided into two nine team divisions, after five games with opponents op-ponents from their own division the top team from each division will play for the title at 6 p.m. on Sunday. These teams represent the top teams in the nation, many of them participating have won national titles, so if you want to see the best in fast pitch softball action, go down to the Complex on 4500 South and about 900 East in Salt Lake City. Next week the slow pitch tournament gets underway. |