Sports

Snow-pitch tournament provides mid-winter fun

February 16, 2023   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

Over 160 slo-pitch enthusiasts couldn’t wait for spring and decided to get out on local ball diamonds despite cold temperatures and snow that covered the baselines.

The event was organized to provide some mid-winter fun while supporting the Orangeville Food Bank at the same time.

Games took place at four local ball diamonds – Rotary Park, Idlewylde Park, and Princess of Wales Park.

Boston Pizza served as tournament headquarters and also gave players a place to warm up and get something to eat between games.

Organizer, John Castellano, said they put out a call for anyone interested in playing and received a huge response.

“We put the idea out there to the general public in the Orangeville community, to put softball teams together to play slo-pitch outdoors – it’s snow-pitch,” Castellano said. “It’s an annual event in Orangeville, but it hasn’t happened for several years. We decided to get the community back together because there’s a big demand for it.”

Word of the event’s return was mostly spread online.

“There’s 16 teams,” Castellano said. “A lot of support came through social media campaigning, like Facebook. We play softball regularly in town. To come out and play when it’s minus-25, you’ve got to be a real slo-pitch player. We’re playing on four diamonds.”

The plan was to play in the conditions that were available. The diamonds weren’t cleared of snow. It made for a totally different type of game.

“We went to the Town of Orangeville, and told them what we were doing and that we [are] running a fundraiser tournament,” Castellano explained. “They said, ‘as long as there’s snow, go ahead.” We had to go out early this morning and chip off some of the ice from the gates so people could get in. Each team has ten to 12 players, so we had over 160 out there.”

Organizers asked every team to bring donations for the Orangeville Food Bank. The teams responded enthusiastically, and donations were collected at the Boston Pizza headquarters.

It was difficult to run the bases and field a ball considering the snow pretty much eliminated a rolling or bouncing hit, and wearing several layers of clothing reduced base runners to a slow jog.

However, that was part of the game, and participants enjoyed the mid-winter event and a chance to get outdoors and have some fun.

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