League commissioner Mike Beall has done just about everything to keep the Hailey Coed Softball League alive and thriving over the last five years.
He has drawn up the season schedules, dragged the field, lined the base paths, organized the umpires, written the checks, called balls and strikes himself and, of course, played on one of the teams in the adult recreational slow-pitch loop.
One thing Beall hadn't done until Sunday was play on one of the Hailey Coed Softball League championship teams. But that all changed on a sunny weekend when his Smith Sport Optics team brought its bats and a winning vision to the diamond.
Smith Sport Optics, seeded fourth in the nine-team league, went undefeated in four games and averaged a lofty 19.0 runs per game in winning its first-ever Hailey Coed Softball Title.
In Sunday's championship game, Smith Sport Optics (17 hits) never trailed and defeated upstart Hailey Hotel 10-6. Smith also beat #5 Life Church 25-14, #1 Bishop Builders/Color Haus 24-16 and Hailey Hotel 17-3.
Beall was a major factor as the pitcher and a leading hitter for Smith (.425 team batting). Beall (.467, 8 runs, 4 HR, 15 RBI) also won the tournament Most Valuable Player award at Hailey's Lion's Park along with Smith Sport Optics first baseman Kim Meyers (.500, 9 runs).
Smith Sport Optics (14-6 overall) grabbed a 5-1 lead in the first inning of Sunday's title game against #3-seeded Hailey Hotel—shortstop Sean Harrington (.632, 13 runs, 14 RBI, 4 RBI) clouting a two-run homer and right fielder Kaitlin Linderman ripping a two-out, two-run single in the rally.
Center fielder T.J. Peterson (.714, 10 runs, 14 RBI, 6 HR) belted a pair of two-run homers in the third and fifth frames as Smith built a 9-5 lead and held off every Hotel comeback bid.
Peterson (3-for-3, 5 RBI), Meyers (3 hits, 3 runs), Sam Sisiam (3 singles), Harrington (2 hits, 2 runs), Trudy Weaver (2 hits) and Jeff Poggi (2 hits, .688 tournament average) were the big Smith guns. Hotel got two hits apiece by Hoss Schmidt, Brad Dredge and Steve England in the finale.
The outcome was quite a turnaround for Smith Sport Optics, which didn't win a game in last year's city tournament and finished 5-10. This season, Beall added Harrington and Peterson, former Budweiser stars, and Smith improved to 10-6 in the season before running the table in the three-day city tournament.
Hailey Hotel (15-6) had a lot to brag about, achieving its highest tournament finish in second place. Outfielder Schmidt was a defensive star and Nic Thomas produced the game-winning hit in Hotel's 4-3 extra-inning win over top-seeded Bishop Builders (16-5) earlier Sunday afternoon.
Beall said afterward, "This is the first time since I've been doing the league that the 1-2 teams in the league during the season didn't finish either No. 1 or No. 2 in the tournament. It seemed like the most fun tournament we've ever had."
Sean Harrington, of the championship-winning Smith Sport Optics team, belts a grand-slam home run against the top-seeded Bishop Builders squad last weekend. Photo by Willy Cook
