LAURINBURG — The next generation of baseball and softball players took the field on Saturday as Scotland County Parks and Recreation held its opening day jamboree.
Hundreds of children filed onto the field as the 19 teams participating in five leagues were introduced. Parks and Rec has five T-ball teams this year, three girl’s coach pitch teams, three boy’s coach pitch teams, four 12U girl’s teams and four 12U boy’s teams.
Laurinburg Police Chief Duke Williams threw out the first pitch after addressing each age group. Williams first talked with the T-ball players about how in order to be successful you have to start with a solid foundation — as several players made houses out of the sand in the infield.
Williams encouraged the older groups to stick with sports if it’s something they are passionate about and reminded parents that sports are meant to be fund.
“I used to fuss when my daughter played softball and she told me, ‘daddy, shut up,’ and she was right because me fussing was keeping her from having fun,” he said.
During the jamboree, players also had a chance to participate in a home run derby and base running contest.
Scores weren’t kept for Saturday’s games because they were exhibition matches for the jamboree. The T-ball season was scheduled to begin on Monday but due to the rain the two games — Athletics vs. Marlins and Rangers vs. Rays — had to be cancelled. The T-ball games will not be made up.
The baseball and softball coach pitch teams and the 12U teams were scheduled to play their first games on Tuesday. A decision on whether or not those games will be played will be made mid-day on Tuesday.
Amber Hatten-Staley can be reached at 910-506-3170 or [email protected].