Let me just start by saying it was a hot weekend. Not so much the bats, but the weather was pretty intense. The temps were right around 95 Fahrenheit and the heat radiating off of the fields just added to that.
Saturday took us to a different part of Columbus, OH where our younger niece was playing in a different tournament. I told both of the girls by the end of the weekend that I would have been much happier if they had taken up ice hockey. There is a point where it gets pretty old just sitting in your own sweat.
It is pretty rare that they play on the same field, so you are often carting all of your gear around God's green Earth.
Collapsible wagons like this are a pretty common site, being pulled all over the place by individuals with various contents inside. It really makes it easier to get your chairs, coolers, etc. from one field to another. I am pretty glad that we made the decision to invest in one a year or two ago.
Likewise, you will find many canopies like this all over the place. Quite frequently there is no shade near the ball fields, so devices like this are your only option. 
The girls finished playing around 6:00 PM on Saturday so we went to get some dinner. They both had their first game of bracket play on Sunday morning, one at 8:30 and the other at 11:00. It was a pretty early night for all of us!
We drove back to the fields in my first post on Sunday morning and my older niece's team lost. They were playing a team from Buffalo, NY and it was a pretty tough competition. It must be all the snow they have to shovel in the Winter up there because those girls came out hitting like beasts.
The Dublin Revolution 16U team was able to stop the bleeding after the first couple of innings, but the damage had already been done. With her games done for the day, we headed back across town to watch my younger nieces game.
Sadly, her team also lost. It was pretty impressive though. They were getting beat pretty badly and my niece who doesn't really like to pitch and hasn't pitched in over a year told her dad (the coach by the way) that if he needed her, she would pitch. They did need her and let me tell you she did fantastic!
Sadly, again the damage was already done and they ended up losing the game. My niece had to be pulled out because she was suffering from dehydration. Like I said, it was pretty brutal out there.
Finally, this isn't really softball related, but I wanted to share this picture:
I am not going to give a name and you probably can't see him very well, but this guy is an absolute piece of trash. He is part of a competing team in the Columbus, OH area named Dublin Selects. He did some very underhanded things to my youngest niece and her family out of spite and bitterness.
It was hard to watch the game having to be so close to him. I did my duty as a good uncle and brother in law of jawing at him a little bit and giving him a hard time. After which he proceeded to purposely kick dirt at my niece. I am not the fighting type, and I had no intention of going to jail. I just wanted him to know I knew who he was and what he had done.
I thought what better way than to immortalize him on the blockchain and document what a waste of space on this Earth he is.
So that was my softball weekend! I wish the outcome had been better, but we still had a great time!
