SPARKS, NV—During the past 25 years or so, the Don Mello Complex has experienced just about everything: your basic lower level every-weekend tournament, to the day the big hitters in slow-pitch softball came to town. This is where they shower the carports and apartment complex outside the outfield fences with home runs, monstrous shots the like of which no one in these parts had ever seen before.

There were the winters when the nearby Truckee River jumped it banks—several times—and flooded the fields. Over the past several winters, it has hosted the Deep Freeze League, which plays in the dead of winter—at night. And then on the flip side, weather and element-wise, there have been the 100 degree afternoons when those gentle prevailing zephyrs would kick up enough dust to choke a camel.

So it may have been appropriate, inevitable, whatever, that in its last year of existence, it would see that increasingly popular event—the marathon tournament. Namely, in this case, the first ever Boneyard Blast, an event that continued day and night from Friday to Sunday June 29 to July 1, and attracted an impressive 104 teams in three divisions.

In the men’s “C”/“D” division, Remax Gold from Sacramento beat Buck’s of Reno for the title. Remax compiled a 6-0 record, while Buck’s only loss was in the championship; Buck’s finished with a 5-1 mark. The 13 teams competed in a round robin, and then a single elimination bracket.

Arpen Engineering took third with a 4-2 record, and Sierra Softball finished fourth at 3-3.

NVS/DSS Bats also compiled a perfect 6-0 record to take the co-ed division title, beating Team Snatch, which finished at 7-2, for the championship. Regulators finished third (4-2), while Kookamunga’s took fourth (5-3).

Here Comes The Broom lived up to its name, sweeping the men’s E division with a 7-0 mark. The team defeated Strong Source for the title. The second-place finisher played 13 games over the weekend to compile an 11-2 record.

Balls Deep took third; along with Greenwood, fourth; All About U, fifth; Motherload Softball, sixth and Rippers, seventh. This division attracted a stunning 57 teams.

Tournament director Jess Horning, who has been playing softball in the area for 13 years, attributes the success of the event to the tournament staff.

“There was a group of us, six of us,” said Horning. He said the staff spent the last two years planning the event. “It (the Boneyard Blast) is a tribute to the six people who worked on it.”

He also admitted another goal was to promote Mello’s replacement, a multi-use complex in Spanish Springs north of Sparks, and as a “going-away party” for Mello.