Top Secret second baseman Damon Christenson applies the tag to Assault & Battery’s Mike Sturzenacker during their first game. Smedes photo.

SPARKS, NV – On September 15-16, Softball West Magazine held the 25th annual Smoke Tournament on a great weekend for softball in beautiful Sparks, NV. Not only is the Reno/Sparks area in the middle of the biggest event month between the Balloon Races and Street Vibrations, the Smoke Tournament was held the same weekend as the Reno Air Races.

Out of the 66 teams that participated, the “D” division consisted of nine teams. Of course there was no question about it that local team Taylor Made and D&R Construction from Marysville, CA would make it to the finals.

Taylor Made first beat D&R Construction 13-9 to send them to the loser’s bracket, which was much too easy for D&R crew. After winning one game 24-13 against the Cheerleaders, D&R Construction and Taylor Made were at it again, battling for the Smoke title. Taylor Made lost 17-5 to D&R Construction in their afternoon game, setting up an “If” game.

The “If” game was definitely an exciting one for fans and spectators of both teams. The champion of the Smoke Tournament would be given local bragging rights for an entire year. D&R was up 5-2 in the third inning and scored another three runs in the fourth. Taylor Made made a run but came up short allowing D&R Construction to win the “D” division championship, 13-8.

The men’s “E” division was particularly exciting for Assault & Battery who has attended the Smoke Tournament for the past four years and never won until this year. “It was great because I’ve been up there four times and never won it,” coach, J.R. Rodgers said. “Seven guys were hitting consistent and that’s how we won it.” Assault & Battery went undefeated for the weekend stomping everyone who stepped in their tracks. Their first game against Drewski was a wash-out, 19-8. From there, Assault & Battery played some semi-tough games (against Desert Mountain, 8-7), and had some not so tough wins (against Wired, 19-11). “We turned numerous double plays,” Rodgers commented.

Top Secret went undefeated in the men’s “E” division until they met up with Assault and Battery. Top Secret only lost by four in a very low-scoring game (9-5) to go into the loser’s bracket. An 11-9 win over Wired earned Top Secret a rematch against the Assault squad. J.R. Rodgers’ Assault & Battery team was too tough as they claimed the top spot with a 16-11 victory for the “E” title.

In the coed division, tournament play was again dominated by Nor Cal teams who seemed to have made it practice in recent years to hold their area championships in the Smoke Tournament. That is, with the exception of Wax It from Dayton, NV, who followed recent tournament championship with a strong fourth place finish.

In third place for the co-ed division was S.O.B., a perennial contender in the tournament.

The pivotal game was played in the winner’s bracket semi-final, pitting the last two champions, the Underdogs and 5150/Worth. The Underdogs came back through the loser’s bracket to again face 5150/Worth and had a slight edge after six innings. In the top of the seventh, 5150/Worth scored 10 runs to take an eight-run lead. The Underdogs came back strong in the bottom half helped by a grand slam. Still, the Underdogs fell short by two runs, finishing with a 5-2 record. 5150/Worth went 6-0 in the tournament to take the championship.

MVP and All-tourneys for the 5150/Worth co-ed team were Megan Delgado, John Brown, Danielle Eakins, Chris Reid and Buzz Jensen respectively. For the Underdogs, Kelly Saenz, Kevin Basacker and Trina Valencia were all-tourneys.

In men’s “E” Mike Sturzenacker, Jordan Thomas, Jay Hart and Tim Bankston respectively were MVP and all-tourneys for Assault & Battery. Top Secret named Kevin Sakai, Scott Scharmann, Damon Christenson and Randy Sprinkles respectively as MVP and all-tourneys.

Finally for the men’s “D” division, Danny Comer was MVP and Josh Howard, Rick Burgess and Aaron Wofford were named to the all-tournament team for D&R Construction. Taylor Made awarded Bruce Jacobsen, Chad Bartek, Garrett Green and Todd Gandsman respectively to the MVP and all-tourneys list.