Barbara Lawlor, Gilpin County. Three years in a row.

After a close season, with the top two teams going back and forth as number one, and with the Acers coming out on top of the league, the Champs ended up staying the Champs in the Tonya Putnam Memorial Tournament last weekend.

It is the third year in a row they have made claim to the shiny trophy with their name engraved on it; and two years in a row they came back after slipping to the number two position in regular league play.

The tournament began on Saturday morning, August 1, and all teams played in brutal heat. At the end of the day, the Acers, the Champs, the Mean Machine and the Players were headed into the quarter finals.

The weather was moody on Sunday, causing a bit of delay as lightning sparked over the field. But no one was going home.

It came down to the Champs playing the Acers in the winner’s bracket and Mean Machine playing the Players. In a close match, the Champs beat the Acers 13-11. It had been a 11-11 tie in the seventh inning, but the Champs managed to cross the plate twice that the Acers couldn’t respond to.

The Players beat Mean Machine 18-10 and then had to face the Acers as the teams vied for second place. The Players were first at bat and it was a scoreless game for three innings but then the Placers, in a series of RBIs, put three runs on the scoreboard.

Relentlessly, the Acers crept up until the sixth inning, when they tied the game at 4 and then pulled ahead 5-4 in the seventh.

It was once again the Acers and the Champs. Because the Acers had lost earlier to the Champs earlier in the tournament, they had to beat the Champs twice in a row to win the tournament.

They were fired up as they came into the finals, taking a 3-0 lead in the first inning and maintaining that lead through the game, ending with a 16-3 final score. Lenny Cortez was amazing on defense, going horizontal to stop many hits and the batters consistently came up with base hits that turned into RBIs.

Umpire Gene Roth said the games had all been competitive and it was generally one of the best tournaments in a number of years. “If it wasn’t so much fun it wouldn’t be so much fun.”

One more game to go.

The Champs took a two-point lead as Sunny Vincent hit a single that opened the door. The Acers, in their fourth game in a row, hit a line of popups and couldn’t seem to muster the intensity of the previous games. At 0-6 in the seventh inning, the Champs put an end to the game and received their trophy with boisterous joy.

Another year of being the Champs.