With just a few weeks left of summer before school starts, most teenagers take a weekend off with nothing to do and make the most of it by hanging out with friends and enjoying the warmth.
Local baseball and softball players have different ideas of what to do with a free weekend: Find a tournament and play.
That’s just what Pocatello High School pitcher Morgan Nalley decided to do last week as she put together a team and played in this weekend’s Poky Shootout softball tournament.
With Nalley having the weekend off from her club in Utah, she decided that she would try and put a 16U team together to play in the Shootout.
After texting a few of her Pocatello High teammates and her friends that played at Highland, she was able to do just that.
“I did not having anything else to do this weekend and there is nothing better to do than play softball,” Nalley said. “I put the word out and sent a bunch of text messages and was able to get a team together.”
Joining Nalley were Highland players Kim Martin, Makenzie VanSickle, Paige and Pashence Korten and Madelyn Livermore. Nalley also was able to get Indians teammate Cierra Cooper to sign up.
They group also came up with a very interesting name — the Idaho Haters.
The other teams in the 16U bracket may be the ones hating after the Haters tore through the entire field without a loss on the way to the 16U championship. It culminated with a 5-1 win over Bonneville at Capell Park on Saturday.
“I knew that we had a chance to win the tournament when we put the team together,” Nalley said. “But we also knew that we were going to have to play hard and come out and hit the ball and play defense.”
Nalley said the team played against some good competition and had a couple of tough games, including one against another local squad in Black Rock. The Black Rock group, made up of Century and Pocatello High School players, took the Haters to extra innings in the semifinals before falling.
The Haters were one of two local teams to win Poky Shootout championships Saturday.
The two-day tournament put on by Bobby Bosquez brought 43 teams from all over Utah, Oregon, Idaho and Montana to the fields of O.K. Ward and Capell Parks.
“It was a very successful weekend,” Bosquez said. “Attendance was down a little from last year, but we saw a lot of good softball and the teams had a good time.”
Bosquez said he would like to see the tournament get bigger next year and he has hopes that he can add an 18U division in the future.
Other champions were the Taylorsville Knock Outs in 10U, the Black Rock Reign in 12U and the Bear River Sliders in 14U.