The Bill Heddles Recreation summer softball leagues began their tournament play last week. The number one teams in each league survived their opening round games but not all made it past their second game before falling into the losers' bracket.

With the exception of Tuesday night's Coed Gold League and Thursday's Women's Slowpitch League, tournament play will conclude next week. Tuesday's coed action was slated to end on July 17 and Thursday night's Women's League on July 19.

Monday Coed League

TK Mining entered tournament play as the league's number one team and won their opener, 10-0, over eighth seeded DCC Crush.

Number four All Glass Station knocked off the fifth seed (Edward Jones Investments) 8-3 in their first-round game. All Glass met TK Mining in a second-round game and sent the top team to the losers' bracket with a 13-12 nail-biter.

In other opening round games, number three Kwiki Auto Service handed number six Ahlberg/Tri-County Seamless a 10-0 loss and US Bank (number 2) had to work hard for a 7-6 win over seventh-seeded Friggin' A's.

US Bank and Kwiki Auto met in second-round action with the money people collecting a 16-6 win.

Monday's games featured elimination games for Edward Jones and DCC and Ahlberg Farms/Tri-County Seamless. Kwiki Auto and TK Mining (respectively) played the winners of those games in elimination games as well.

The lone winner's bracket matchup featured number two US Bank and number four All Glass Station. These results will appear in next week's edition of The Delta County Independent.

Tuesday Coed League

Number one (Delta Family Fun Park) and number two (Wells Fargo Home Mortgage) drew byes in opening round action.

Hellman Chevrolet and The Pondy met in an opening round contest to see who would face Delta Family Fun Park. Hellman's powered their way to a 19-2 decision in that game.

The other opening round matchup featured number three Twist Off and Mr. Concrete (number 6). Twist Off had their way with a 16-1 win and faced Wells Fargo in their second game.

Delta Family Fun Park held the upper hand in their contest with Hellman's and came away with a 12-5 win. Wells Fargo had little trouble with Twist Off and scored a 15-5 win in the other winner's bracket game.

The two top teams met in round three for the right to stay in the winner's bracket and Wells Fargo dumped the top-seeded Delta Family Fun Park crew by the score of 18-12.

In losers' bracket play, Twist Off eliminated The Pondy 23-3 and Mr. Concrete lost to Hellman's 14-4 to end their tournament for 2012.

The second round of play in the losers' bracket had Twist Off and Hellman's square off in what was one of the more exciting games of the evening. Twist Off eventually moved on with a 23-22 win and was to face Delta Family Fun Park to begin play on July 17. Wells Fargo, the lone undefeated team left, played the winner of that contest to determine a tournament champion. Wells Fargo would have to be defeated twice, giving them the odds-on favorite to win the tournament.

Men's Slowpitch

There was action aplenty last Thursday night in the Men's Slowpitch League. The evening began slowly with a pair of forfeits but gained momentum as the night wore on.

Big B's (#6) picked up a forfeit win over number 11 Misfits in round one while Kwiki Tire (#10) did the same when Hellman Motors (#7) failed to field enough players for their opening round contest.

Hellman Chevrolet (#8) and The Casers (#9) met in the other opener with The Casers scoring a 13-10 win.

The Casers played number one Where's My Pitches next and fell into the losers' bracket with a 13-3 loss.

Aftershock/ClassicWood Floors (#2) met Kwiki Tire in their first game of the tournament and scored a 16-5 win.

Number three-seeded Delta Metals/Crusaders took on Big B's in a second-round game and came up short in a 15-11 loss.

Mr. Concrete (#4) lost to Balls Deep (#5) by the score of 15-7 to complete second-round play.

In losers' bracket action, Mr. Concrete won by forfeit over Misfits and Hellman Motors came from behind to score an exciting 16-15 decision in the seventh inning.

One of next week's games between Balls Deep and Where's My Pitches was played on July 12. The two teams were at the field and officials were able to get the teams to agree on playing the game early. Balls Deep emerged as the tournament's lone undefeated team with a 15-13 decision over Where's My Pitches.

Next week's action begins with Hellman Chevrolet and Delta Metals playing in a 6 p.m. contest. Two 7 p.m. games will feature Mr. Concrete and Hellman Motors in losers' bracket play and Big B's and Aftershock/Classic Wood Floors in a winner's bracket game.

Men's tournament action will conclude on July 26.

Women's Slowpitch

When things looked grim for the regular season champs (H & R Block), a few late-inning rallies provided the offense necessary for a pair of victories to keep them undefeated in tournament play.

In game one for H & R, a late rally propelled them to a 17-16 win over number four Overholt Truss. Overholt was winless in league play (0-12) and was on the verge of a major upset when H & R made their comeback.

Republic Mortgage (#3) was looking to pull the upset over second-seeded Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in game two last Thursday evening. Wells Fargo broke a 2-2 tie late in the game and held on for a 3-2 win, in what was the season's lowest scoring contest.

H & R met Wells Fargo in the evening's finale with H & R using some of their magic to erase a two-run lead by Wells Fargo to score an 8-7 victory in the seventh inning.

H & R has the upper hand in next week's tournament play as they are undefeated and must be beaten twice to lose championship play.

Overholt Truss and Republic Mortgage play first Thursday (July 19) to see who gets to face Wells Fargo for the right to advance to the finals against H & R.

They hit well, they ran bases well. Their pitching was excellent, and so was their defense.

But the Tri-County All Stars' softball team faced some tough Front Range teams at the state 12-and-under tournament, falling short of qualifying for the Babe Ruth Midwest Plains regional tournament in Burlington.

"The girls played their hearts out, they played really well," said coach R.J. Wist. "All in all we were very proud of the girls because they never gave up."

The Aurora Girls Softball Association, or AGSA, team, an all-star team pulled from several Denver area schools, went undefeated to win the tournament. SE Denver placed second.

Pool play was used to seed the six teams competing in the double-elimination tournament. Tri County, a team of league players from Hotchkiss and Paonia, opened with a 10-7 win over Southeast Denver, which attracts some of the best talent from the Denver area.

"A little league like Paonia going against a big-league team like that from Denver," said Wist, "Talk about David and Goliath."

Tri-County was down 2-1 going into the third inning. Runs by shortstop Emily Wilczek and Emily Pieper gave Tri County a 1-run lead, and the defense held Denver scoreless in the third and fourth innings. Kelsey Stroud, Pieper, Taralee Mautz and Courtney VanVleet scored in the fifth to give Tri-County a 10-3 lead. Denver attempted to rally, but fell short with only three runs in the final inning and ended the game on a fly out to right field.

Tri-County suffered a 6-1 loss to Centennial in game 2 of pool play, and entered the tournament seeded second. Tri-County then faced Santa Fe in game one of tournament bracket play.

"We just couldn't get going," said Wist. "We had a couple of bad innings and couldn't hit our stride." That allowed Santa Fe an early 10-1 lead.

Stroud was pitching well, but collided with a Santa Fe player in a pickle situation and caught a cleat to the mouth, bringing Brittney Kendall to the plate. "She did well, she threw well," but Santa Fe was a scrappy team and found a way to win, said Wist. "Their pitching was tough, and they had a good team."

Tri-County rallied at the end for three more runs, but lost in the bottom of the fourth under the 10-run rule. They were eliminated after an 11-6 loss to SE Denver. AGSA remained undefeated to win the tournament, and pitcher Zoey Robbins was named Championship Game MVP; SE Denver placed second, and both advanced to regionals.

Pieper, Tri-County's first base player, was named to the All-Tournament team.

Despite the losses, Wist said the tournament was a positive experience. "It's good for our girls to face this kind of talent."

Tri-County was also coached by Lonny Stroud and Tony Mautz. Wist said the team has a great deal of talent and drive and the coaches plan to take them to the U14 level next year. Coaches were already making plans for next summer, including possible tournaments with some of the Denver-area teams. "That would give us some experience against tougher talent," said Wist.