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Show Park City Accommodations takes second in softball tourney by Randy llunskat For the twelfth time, Labor Day weekend meant softball for many players both local and not so local. And as has been the pattern for the past few years, the local teams were beaten, although one partially local crew, Park City Accommodations, was the Labor Day tournament runner-up. Mike Osher of the Park City Recreation Department, coordinator of the affair, said a total of 15 teams battled on the diamonds of City Park and the high school over the three days of play. The unpredictable weather which made a mess of the women's tournament the weekend before was cooperative. "It was three days of the best weather ever in Park City," Osher said. The Park City Accommodations (PCA) team was the surprise of the tournament, according to Osher. But a closer look at the team shows it was not made up entirely of regular local softball season players. Kurt Linde-man, Linde-man, Mike Larsen and Bart Beam were the only regulars from the team. Another local, Larry Gooding, normally the first baseman for league champs Jans Mountain Outfitters, also played for PCA. But the real difference on the team came from Salt Lake. Six players came up to bolster the squad. Osher said one of the six played baseball for the University of Utah, another for the University of North Carolina. You could say their ability was a notch above the standard Park City , t ' . ' I Mill ' " " i Local pitcher Chuck Folkerth (left), on the mound for Bullock's, watches as a Park City Accommodations player stretches a single into a double in a Monday game. f ' : Jh He's in there! A Salt Lake member of the Park City Accommodations team gets to the plate before the Bullock's catcher applies the tag. P.C.A. went on to knock Bullock's out of the tourney, going on to finish second. PhotoSby)anw1ik ng iare. PCA didn't start off the tourney on a good note. They lost to the Reds, a team from Ogden, 14-13, a game Osher said PCA should have won. From there PCA had to fight its way through the loser's bracket an unenviable task for any team with a first game Monday morning at 8 a.m., followed by continuing games through 6:30 p.m. The only break Park City Accommodations got was from 2 p. m. to 3 :30 p. m. , Osher said. In the finals against Tooele, last year's champion, PCA had its work cut out for it. They had to win two games from Tooele, which had not lost a game yet. Osher said PCA started out hot, taking an early 5-0 lead that grew to 6-1 in the fifth inning. Then Tooele showed why they won last year, as they exploded for nine runs, while holding the PCA bats scoreless. It ended at 10-6. Three other local teams competed in the tournament, Jans, Doc's and Just Razor's Bums. Of those three, Doc's did the best, winning three games before being knocked out. Doc's beat Jans, the Hatch Cover (Colorado) and Space Builders (Salt Lake) and lost to Spifford Paper and Bullock's, both from Salt Lake. Jans opened up against Tooele for the second year in a row and lost. Then they beat Spifford Paper, before bowing out at the hands of Doc's. The Bums went out painlessly, painless-ly, losing Saturday to Roberts Bibs of Ogden and to Sun Valley. Osher said the Most Valuable Player of the Ninth Annual Labor Day Tournament was Carl Nelson of Steve's Auto, the third place finisher from Heber. "Nobody could get him out," Osher commented. "Every time I looked up I saw him running around the bases." He hit over 900 for the three days. The Bums and Doc's picked up two of the other trophies. Doc's was chosen as the Crybaby Award winner, for relentless whining and moping throughout the tourney. The Bums were selected as the Most Fun Team. "They got their butts kicked," Osher said, "so for $125 (the entry fee) I figured I'd give them a trophy." One footnote: As of Tuesday afternoon not a single Bum had made it to the Recreation Department Depart-ment to pick up the coveted trophy. Osher threatened to give the trophy to Rusty, a regular fixture at all softball games in town, if no Bums showed up by the end of that day. Now it is final the softball season for Park City is officially over. For the 400 or so people at City Park Monday it was a good way to go out. |