BEDFORD -- 180 Energy Drink team members front row (from left) Rusty Black, Derek McKee, Jeremy Stone, Ryan Smith, Travis David and Brian Barber. Back row (from left) Greg Landry, Tim Wright, Chad Crynes, Jeremie Hughlett and Jeff Hazel.

As many of those who follow along with my columns and posts on here, you know that I keep active on the weekends by playing softball. At the start of summer I was really anticipating on doing a weekly column on the local adult softball scene, but have noticed that it is not too big in Greene County, or least not to my knowledge.

Not being one to boost my own teams up, I have strayed away from writing about results in tournaments that we have participated in. After playing this past weekend, I decided that it was time to dedicate a column to our softball team, not for my pleasure but for the other guys and gals that are associated with the team.

Our team is sponsored by 180 Energy Drink. Many of you may be wandering exactly what 180 Energy Drink is.

180 is made by Dever Distributing of Terre Haute and can be found at select stores throughout the county as well as Wabash Valley area. If you have not tried this drink, I would highly recommend you locate a store and try for yourself. And no, I was not paid to say that, although we are supplied with the drinks for each tournament.

Back to the team now. Our men's team is composed of guys from Jasonville, Sullivan, Terre Haute, Bloomington, Linton and one guy from out of state in the metropolis of Flat Rock, Ill.

Just recently a couple of us guys decided we would try our hand at forming a women's team as well. The ladies, which just may be better than the guys, are from Jasonville, Sullivan, Dugger, Switz City and Linton.

The men competed in a competitive league in Terre Haute at Spencer Park, and finished with a record of 7-5. The team started coming around after a slow start and won six of the last eight league games, with one of the loses coming against the league champions, Marizou's Pizza in Terre Haute, in extra innings.

The team competed in the Bedford All-Nighter this past weekend at Murray Forest Park. The tournament is an open class, and a total of 20 men's teams participated. After defeating a local team from Terre Haute in the opening round at 11 p.m. Friday night, team 180 ran into a buzz-saw in the form of Nolan's.

Nolan's, a class B team from Bedford, features a bulky group of players that could be mistaken for offensive and defensive linemen from the NFL.

With the loss, team 180 was placed in the losers bracket where they proceeded to rattle off five straight wins including three back-to-back-to-back victories without a break. The fourth game in a row without a break, team 180 ran into Nolan's once again and our tournament run came to an abrupt end with an impressive third- place showing.

Nolan's, who some would say you could find their names on the list of Balco clients along with Barry Bonds, was defeated by another Bedford local team called Cotton's in the championship game of the winner's bracket. After defeating 180 for the second time and fourth time during the summer, Nolan's double-dipped Cottons to claim the championship.

After all was said and done, most team members felt the team played our best ball of the season, and although the competitive nature of all of us is not totally satisfied with placing third, we were all happy with walking away with six wins and a third-place plaque.

Even more significant about the tournament was the eight total games played all within an 18-hour time frame and most of us only getting about an average of one hour of sleep.

On top of the lack of sleep and the temperature ranging in the 90s during the day on Saturday several team members were battling through injuries left and right and showed no signs of slowing down. One player, Jeremy Stone, left at noon to attend to his 5-year old daughter, who was in an accident and was in the hospital for a brief stay. Stone would later return to action to help the team to another win. The outfielder's daughter, Jaci suffered a slight concussion and returned home with her mother, Lacey.

One other local men's team competed in the 20 team tournament as Rehmel Homes finished with a record of 3-2 which was good for 11th place. Their two loses came against Southfork Camo 15-14 and Stewart's Construction, 13-12 in 9 innings.

Team 180 would later strike for revenge on both teams for their local counterparts, as 180 eliminated both teams from the tournament.

Some individual highlights from the weekend was Derek McKee, Chad Crynes, Brian Barber and coach Greg Landry all leaving the yard with long balls. McKee and Crynes each homered mutliple times.

Defense also factored into the six wins, as the Landry and McKee combination up the middle of the infield turned in some stifling double plays. Pitchers Tim Wright and Jeff Hazel also snagged some hot comebackers up the middle that started twin killings as well.

Some diving web gem catching were turned in by the corner outfielders as well as some nice running catches in the alley from the middle outfielders.

Not to be outdone by the men, the newly formed 180 women's team not only competed but steam rolled their way to the tournament title. In their four victories, team 180 outscored their competition 70-18, including a 19-9 triumph over Lawrence County Farms Supply in the title game.

Highlights from the women's games were home runs from Tina Baker and Megan Gambill and Nicole Fougerousse also left the yard twice in one game. Amy Hammond pitched four good games and received stellar defense from Patty Tally at shortstop and Lacey Stone and Julie May in the outfield as well as Amy Landry on the infield and some outfield.

Other team members include Alicia Tally, Whitni Scott, Regina Robinson and Alicia Hill.

Team members for the men's team that competed this past weekend are Greg Landry, Jeremy Stone, Tim Wright, Chad Crynes, Derek McKee, Ryan Smith, Rusty Black, Jeremie Hughlett, Jeff Hazel, Brian Barber and myself.

The 180 men's team will be competing this weekend at Kleymeyer Park in Evansville for the Class D South State tournament August 1-3.

If anyone has results from other local teams please feel free to contact me with information.

Travis David is a sports writer for the Greene County Daily World and can be reached at 812-847-4487 ex. 20 or tdavid@gcdailyworld.com