THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 7, 1994 TAG: 9408050262
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL LEFFLER, CURRENTS SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
The 14th annual Tidewater Softball Championship will get under way on Tuesday night at two fields in Chesapeake.
The three-night tournament is being held at Greenbrier and Indian River High School.
This tourney matches the top slow pitch softball teams in the four-city area of Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Norfolk and Virginia Beach. It rotates every two years among the participating cities and was held in Portsmouth in 1992 and 1993. It will not return to Portsmouth until 2000.
Pairings are not available at this time since playoffs are being held in several leagues to determine No. 2 seeds.
The regular-season champions in Portsmouth in the Men's Class A, Women's, Church and Coed have been decided and three of the city's No. 2 seeds are set. A weekend playoff was still being held to determine the No. 2 team in the Women's League.
The Men's Class A qualifiers from Portsmouth are Harrison Moving and Storage and the P-Town Merchants. Harrison won both the regular-season and the playoffs but P-Town qualified as the playoff runnerup.
The entries in the Church League division are St. Therese No. 1 and Alliance Christian CMA. St. Therese gained the No. 1 seed as the regular-season champion. Allilance won the playoff.
Portsmouth's top-seeded Women's team is P. J. Elite, the league winner. The playoff winner gains the second berth or the runnerup if P. J. Elite adds the post-season crown to its regular-season title.
The Coed teams are the Tailgates and Towne Point Pub. The Tailgates, the league winner, are the top seed. The playoff final on Friday matched the Tailgates and Towne Point Pub, so Towne Point will be the No. 2 seed.
Harrison Moving and Storage advanced to the title game in the Men's Class A division last year, bowing to Clancy's of Norfolk, 25-15.
Other winners last year were Something New of Virginia Beach in the Women's division, Bethel Baptist of Chesapeake in the Church division and Winner's Sports Pub of Virginia Beach in the Coed group.
The tournament is held under ASA rules. There are no time limits on games and unlimited home runs. However, there is a 12-run rule.
It's unlikely that the home run output of the participating sluggers will match the total cranked out at Churchland Park last year. There were 67 home runs in the 13 games played. Yet the distances were more than adequate for the women and distaff co-ed players. No female players hit a home run.
Games are scheduled Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Thursday is a rain date.
Other annual highlights are home run hitting and throwing contests. by CNB