Two fields, five teams and 16 hours were required Saturday to determine the champion of the Fort Benning Open Softball Tournament, which began at 8 a.m. on Gowdy and Engineer fields and ended at about midnight.
Benning I came out on top, but not without competition from Benning II, which defeated Benning I twice before the championship round. The event began with a pool of games to determine seeding and then became a double-elimination tournament.
Benning II sent Benning I to the loser’s bracket with a 23-21 win to seal a spot in the final round. That’s when Benning I bounced back through the loser’s bracket to force a rematch.
With Benning I needing two wins over Benning II to win the tournament, Benning I exploded for 25 runs in the first inning of Game 1 on its way to a 33-11 rout.
Ahead 30-22 in the bottom of the seventh inning in Game 2, Benning I held off Benning II, 30-28.
Benning I got two early outs with the score at 30-24. Benning II proceeded to score four straight runs before first baseman Ricky Martinez grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the game.
“I told them to just play good defense, nothing spectacular,” Benning I pitcher Thomas Siter said. “Just make the outs. Once we put two outs on the board, it was only a matter of time.”
Siter said the turning point in the championship game was the sixth inning, where Benning I took a 25-22 lead after ripping off eight runs and shutting down Benning II in the bottom half.
“They were just as tired as we were, they just made the play when we didn’t,” Benning II right-center fielder David Tuck said.
But despite playing so many games, Siter said fatigue didn’t have much of an effect on the team because it had gotten used to playing consistently over a long duration.
“We’ve been playing long tourneys recently, some eight or nine games,” Siter said. “I felt better the last two games than I had all day.”
Siter hit three home runs in the final two games, including a grand slam in the 25-run inning. Ralph Hodge led Benning I for the tournament, batting .854 with 29 RBIs. Jami Cain also had 29 RBIs and batted .780.
The tournament also featured two unit teams from the 4th Ranger Training Battalion and the Maneuver Captains Career Course. MCCC was the first team eliminated while the 4th RTB was knocked out by the visiting Rucker Softball Team.
Tuck was disappointed Benning II could not produce the same result when it defeated Benning I in their previous two games but thought his team made a run in the final game after falling flat in the 33-11 loss.
“I’ve been on the softball field since 7:30 this morning,” Tuck said. “Everybody dug down and fought to the very end.”
