BBAA's Summer Slugfest Baseball Tournament a Great Success

The 16th annual Bensenville Summer Slugfest All Star baseball tournament completed late July. This year's Slugfest had 34 different teams from 21 different baseball organizations competing at the 8U, 10U, 12U, and 14U levels. The Summer Slugfest is an in-house All Star tournament that is hosted by the BBAA (Bensenville Boys and Girls Athletic Association) that offers a five game guarantee and is played at Redmond Park, DiOrio Park, and Fenton High School.

The Village of Bensenville and the Bensenville Park District did a wonderful job of getting the fields ready for play and dealing with the few days of rain. Most participants raved about the field conditions and had nothing but praise for tournament coordinators Jason Sabala and Marty O'Connell.

Tournament results and team pictures are available on the BBAA website at http://www.bbaasports.org/2016slugfest/ .

Bensenville's 14U team made it to the championship game for the first time in over 10 years but fell short against a rock solid Dunham Park team that tore the cover off the ball the entire tournament. The 12U, 10U, and 8U divisions had three of the most entertaining championship games in years. Welles Park held on to win 7-5 over Oak Park at the 12U level; Oak Park beat Franklin Park 2-0 in a great pitchers dual with some rock solid defense at the 10U level; Horner Park flashed some serious leather in beating Franklin Park at the 8U level by a score of 10-8.

The BBAA has been running youth sports programs for over 50 years in Bensenville and currently facilitates youth baseball, softball, and wrestling. The BBAA is completely run by volunteers and relies on the support of the Village of Bensenville, the Bensenville Park District, and Fenton High School who do a wonderful job of providing the facilities for the kids to play.