Participants pose together following last year's II Central American Junior Men's Championship. (Photo courtesy of Belize Softball Federation)

TRIO OF TOURNAMENTS IN CENTRAL AMERICA
2007-09-13

Beginning exactly two weeks from today Belize will host the IV Central American Junior Women’s Championship. That event will feature the national junior women’s softball teams (players born after 1987) from Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. The tournament is scheduled for September 27-30 in Rogers Stadium. In Guatemala last year, El Salvador defeated the host country for the title.

Approximately two weeks later, the III Central American Junior Men’s Championship is scheduled to take place. Five countries will compete from October 11-14 in San Pedro de Sula, Honduras. The event was originally scheduled to start today, but a hurricane destroyed the field. The participating national teams, also made up of players born after 1987, will be Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

El Salvador is the defending champion, having won the event last November in their own country. It would seem that the pressure is on Honduras for this year’s tournament as the first edition of the event (September 2005) had been won by the host country too (Guatemala).

One event is already in the books in that part of the world. In Estelí, Nicaragua, last month (August 16-19), Guatemala won the VI Central American Softball Champion of Champions (women’s) tournament, finishing with a 6-2 won-lost record. El Salvador finished second, followed by Nicaragua, Belize, and Honduras.

All of the above are fast pitch tournaments put on by the Central American Softball Confederation (CONCASOFT).