Toppling two-time defending champion 7 Dog Ranch/ESS will be foremost on everybody's minds during the Hailey Coed Softball League city tournament Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 13-14 at Lions Park.
But it will be a tough task.
Playing as LDE Electric/Little Wood Builders, the champs went 37-1 during the 2009 and 2010 seasons. This summer, playing as 7 Dog Ranch/ESS, the champions lost their first game of the season 12-10 to Sawtooth Paint June 13 and then won 13 consecutive games to take the league title and top seed with a 13-1 mark.
So, the 7 Dog players are 50-2 over three seasons.
They will open the six-team double elimination tournament Saturday at 12 noon against No. 5-seeded Peterson Bros. Farms/B&T Construction (6-8).
Other first-round games Saturday are No. 3 Cups and Bras (10-4) vs. No. 6 Hailey Hotel (4-10) at 9 a.m., and No. 2 Sawtooth Paint/Class 5/McClain's (12-2) vs. No. 7 Mahoney's (3-11) at 10:30 a.m.
If the seedings hold up, Cups and Bras will tangle with Sawtooth Paint at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Loser bracket games continue through Saturday at 6 p.m. The winner bracket final is Sunday at 9 a.m. and the championship game is Sunday at 1:30 p.m. The "if necessary" game is set for Sunday at 3 p.m.
This is the league's 23rd city tournament. Two teams, Uhrig Fencing/River Run Auto Parts (1995-99) and Wicked Spud (2000-04) have won five straight tournament titles. And one team, Red Elephant (1989-91), has won three straight titles.