The area Little League softball tournament has already hit the ball and is rounding the bases.
Softball started last Friday — one week earlier than the baseball All-Star tournament for District 16. The 12-year-old games will end this Friday, and the second level — the regional tournament — will begin after July 4.
“The tournament is set up in brackets and it is double elimination. So, you have to lose twice to be done,” said Mike Pickering, director of softball. “Right now Wyoma is in the winners bracket for the 12-year-old bracket. They are waiting for the winner of the Peabody and Winthrop game (on tap for tonight at 6 p.m.). The winner of that game will play Wyoma in the championship.”
There has been a real decline in participation over the last couple years and COVID-19 did not help anything.
“There are five teams in the bracket right now. It’s weird, the number is really down over the years and it’s gotten progressively worse. Kids were just getting back into the ball game and COVID-19 didn’t help. We lost a whole year due to COVID and when we came back it was an abbreviated season,” said Pickering.
“We have nine leagues in district 16 and only five put in for All-Star games instead of the usual seven or eight,” said Pickering. “It’s interesting that the numbers have really gone down.”
The 12-year-old division is not the only bracket that is going on right now. “We have our 10-year-old division bracket going on right now and an 11-year-old. The 12-year-old, which is the Little League, are the ones that go onto the World Series,” said Pickering. “We also have a Junior League bracket that’s going on as well. Then the Senior League bracket. They are going straight into the state finals because there is no one else in our area to play them, which is really interesting.”
