Bill Nickerson, 2nd base for Nevada Fitness, makes a quick flip to the bag. Smedes photo.

SPARKS, NV - The 17th Annual Balloon Race Softball Tournament, hosted by the Northern Nevada ASA, played host to seventy teams over the recent September 10-11th weekend. The top-flight tournament field converged on the Reno and Sparks Sports Complexes to compete in the very popular end of summer annual event. The tournament saw great weather, spirited crowds and competitive action between the white lines.

The men’s ‘D’ bracket had twenty-eight entries vie for the first place tournament trophy. Local powerhouse Nevada Fitness continued their string of successes this season with an undefeated 6-0 tournament record and recorded the only perfect mark of the seventy teams in the tournament. The Nevada Fitness squad outlasted second place finisher McLeys Tire (Santa Rosa, CA) who logged a 6-2 tournament mark. Third place, with a 3-2 record, went to Those Guys (Susanville, CA) and finishing in fourth was D-12 (Sparks, NV) with a 4-2 tourney record.

Nevada Fitness’ Bill Nickerson was awarded the defensive MVP while teammates Jason Lewis, Darrin Ketchup, Bob Whited and Trevor Schmidt were selected all tourney members. Ryan Flores of McLeys Tire earned offensive MVP selection with McLeys Tire team members George Nickelson and Rich Rebo awarded all tournament slots.

The co-ed division was split into ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ brackets with ten teams in the ‘upper’ and thirty-two squads bracketed in the ‘lower’ division of the draw.

In the ‘upper’ division the Yard Sharks ruled the day as they fashioned a 6-1 tournament record. The Yard Sharks defeated Team FU 21-16 in a thrilling final title game contest. Team FU was 4-2 for their tourney record. Ugly But Effective finished third with a 2-2 record and fourth place with a 3-3 mark was Hot Dogs & Buns.

Jeff Twigg from Yard Sharks was named offensive MVP while the defensive MVP award was given to Megan Aguayo, who plays for Team FU. Yard Sharks team members Gerold Engres, Cory Twigg, George White and Conrad Carabello received all tourney nods. Chris Nardini, Shannon Auble and Bill Frasce from Team FU placed on the all tournament list.

The thirty-two team ‘lower' co-ed division saw a highly competitive battle for top honors as several teams could have finished in the top spot. After the dust settled it was Western Legion from Susanville, CA who posted a 6-1 record to capture the first place hardware. In second place with a record of 7-2 was Tropical Tan out of Redding, CA. Last Call (Santa Rosa, CA) finished third with a 4-2 record and Nor Cal Homes (Dixon, CA) rounded out the top four with a 5-2 tournament mark.

Western Legion’s Billy Dibble was selected as the offensive MVP for the tournament, while Travis Bolton of Tropical Tan garnered defensive MVP selection. All tournament spots for Western Legion went to Greg Goebel, John Wheeler, Rachael Goodpaster and Cheryl Henry. Sherri Fox, Matt Homme and Ed Heaney from Tropical Tan received all tourney selection.