Heavy rain wasn’t going to dampen the spirits of the 20 softball teams that showed at up Washington’s Susiegray McConnell Sports Complex for the first annual Memorial Day Weekend Softball Blast on Saturday.
A few hours after the 9 a.m. start time, a dark gray sky dropped buckets of rain on the athletes and their on-lookers, but by 1:30 p.m. the girls where already back on the field warming up and prepared to finish out the day’s schedule.
“We got two rounds of pool games in already,” said Washington Girls Fastpitch Softball League president Greg Dority during the rain delay. “The fields here drain well and the maintenance crews are out here, both the city’s and our volunteers, and we can go a long time tonight so I anticipate we will get all the games in … We want to give a lot of thanks to the mayor’s (Archie Jennings) office and the Recreation Dept., without their support we could not have put this tournament together; they have gone the extra mile for us.”
The tournament features girls ages 10-14-years old and who compete in three different classifications. By 2 p.m. the sun had broke through the clouds, but during the delay the WGFSL took every measure to prepare the fields for play.
“Right now we are going to reline the fields. We are going to re-chalk the batter’s box and the lines and the pitching circle,” Dority said. “The city has machines that they will drag the fields with … Otherwise, the fields drain good so I don’t anticipate us having a problem.”
The tournament boasts teams from as far as Virginia and Dority said the reason teams come to Washington is because of the high level of play and accommodating facilities.
“One of the draws we have here in Washington is the Carolina Dirt Devils organization,” Dority said. “Most of the Dirt Devil teams are out here playing. The Dirt Devils organization here in Washington boasts some of the strongest pitching in eastern North Carolina. That, along with our superior playing facilities is the reason why we are able to draw teams from Virginia and Wilson and a lot of in-county teams.”
Dority, who has been the WGFSL president for five years, is determined to make Washington synonymous with softball and so far he is on the right track.
“When we started out we had a difficult time competing in many levels but the quality of our organization, our coaches, our parents and our volunteers, along with the cooperation of the city, has allowed Washington to emerge as the Beast in the East.”
The WFGSL has tried to put together tournaments in the past, but for various reasons it did not go as well as expected. However, Dority felt the Blast has the right recipe for success.
“We had a couple of tournaments a few years ago in bad months – February and March – and we had bad weather,” Dority said. “The mayor spoke with me about eight or nine months ago and said he would like to have a Memorial Day tournament to help Washington’s economic development and bring people to town for this holiday weekend … The thing that is key is that we are looking to put on a superior product today so that we can have additional tournaments in the future.”