WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – It will be a busy weekend on the diamond around the area.
The 15th Can-Am Fastpitch Shootout in the Thousand Islands is back after a year off due to COVID.
Eighty-six teams in six age brackets will be playing on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at a number of sites around Jefferson County.
“Yeah, we get a high level of competition here,” tournament organizer Mike Lennox said. “Everyone is guaranteed four games so they get three games on Friday and Saturday for pool play which will then schedule for single-elimination tournament on Sunday. We get a lot of teams from Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Utica. and, of course, we have local teams as well.”
Lennox says the idea behind starting a tournament like this was to give softball players in the area a chance to hit the field during the off season and play high-quality competition a little closer to home.
“If we could do something like that in our backyard being in the Thousand Islands region, we thought we could draw good teams and competitive teams, but more importantly we’d give our own north country kids a chance to play against different competition.”
Lennox and his wife, Lisa, have been the driving force behind the tournament, but he says says without the support of the community this event wouldn’t be possible.
“So, the support of the local school districts as well as the other entities within the basic area of Jefferson County have just been great,” Lennox said. “We’re very fortunate to have F.X. Caprara Car Companies as our sponsor again this year. Every year we’ve run the tournament they’ve been our sponsor and also Victory Promotions.”
It’s a chance for local fastpitch softball fans to check out some quality competition at a number of sites around the area with a total of 209 games slated for the three days.
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