Hill Top Inflatables Tournament for Breast Cancer Research

Submitted by Teres Seymour

Massena Women’s Softball league held their Annual Breast Cancer Research tournament this weekend, July 13 & 14 at Alcoa 1 & 2 fields.  We had 14 teams entered, which included 3 teams from Plattsburgh, 3 teams from Akwesasne, 1 team from Ogdensburg, and 7 teams from Massena.   The Hill Top Inflatables team had their first game Saturday @ 9:00 am against Tee Bigtree’s team Midnight Confetti which was a win for Hill Top Inflatables with a score of 6 to 4.  Our second game was at 1:00 pm against a Plattsburgh team with another victory for Hill Top Inflatables with a score of 5 to 0.  This resulted in a 3rd game for the day at 5:00 pm against Mamm-witches (Ogdensburg team). This was a tough game since they scored the first run in the 1st inning and then another in the 5th inning.  Hill Top Inflatables didn’t get any runs until the 5th when we tied the game up.  The tie resulted in the game going into 9 innings before anyone got another run.  We managed to keep the Mamm-witches scoreless and having home team advantage really helped us this game.  Going into the bottom of the 9th, we had Calandra Curleyhead on 2nd who was running for April Seymour, Akat Benedict on 1st and Diane Lazore up to bat with only 1 out.  We knew we had our winning run on 2nd and told Diane our winning run was on 2nd, she went up to bat and managed to find a hole and scored our winning run due to some fast running from Calandra.  We ended our day on Saturday undefeated and exhausted from all the heat.  We had excellent teamwork on the field and at the plate.  We gave our fans some excellent games of softball on Saturday.  Our pitcher was Bonnie George who did an excellent job on the mound. I would like to acknowledge her dedication to the team since she had to change her shift at work. After our 5:00pm game she had to hurry and get to work at the Casino for her 7pm-2am shift, but she came back to the field on Sunday morning to play once again at 10 am with only a few hours of sleep and also asked for an extension to go back to work at 5 pm rather than 3 pm.  I am still not sure how she did it.  

Sunday we met up with another Plattsburgh team “Lady Tatas” that was tougher than the first one.  We were off to a rough start but we never gave up.  I think our pink camouflage shirts gave us incentive since after the 1st inning the score was 11 to 3 for Lady Tatas.  But we managed to hold them off a little as we kept getting a couple runs at a time.  By the 5th inning the score was 15 to 14.  Both teams were fighting for the win since we were both undefeated.  We just couldn’t hold off this team, which resulted in our first loss of the tournament with a score of 21 to 18.  Hill Top Inflatables went into the semi-finals with a rematch against Tee Bigtree’s team once again at 1:30 pm.  It was nice to see 2 teams from Akwesasne in the semi-finals.  Hill Top Inflatables did not give up their loss easily since this game went 8 innings with a score of 11 to 10.  Congratulations to Tee’s team going into the finals against Lady Tatas and winning, but due to this being Lady Tatas first loss they had to play again since the tournament was double elimination.  Tee’s team was exhausted by then due to playing 3 back to back games. After much discussion between both teams it was agreed that Tee’s team and Lady Tatas would be co-champions, resulting in Hill Top Inflatables finishing 2nd in the tournament.   All in all it was some great softball all weekend!

 The team would also like the thank Teiothorake Seymour for making sure his team was very well hydrated all weekend.  Thank you for supplying us with ice, water, Gatorade, fresh fruit, bananas to keep the cramps away, and the tent.  Also thank you for the sponsorship and shirts.  A big nia-wen kowa to all our fans that endured the heat with us, the team appreciated your support all weekend and we hope we gave you some good softball to watch.  Thank you to Diane, Calandra, Leighann and Colleen for joining our team for the weekend-maybe we can convince you to join our Monday night team for next season, thanks to you girls, you helped us get into the semi-final!