Springwood Park was bursting at the seams with young baseball players on Saturday, as Oceanside Minor Baseball held its annual opening day ceremony and marked the official start of its season with a full slate of games.
“We were real pleased with how it went — the rain held off and we got all the games in,” OMB president Mike Parlow said after, adding “we had a good turnout, almost the whole league was out… it was really good to have all the coaches and players out on the field.”
By all accounts Oceanside Minor Baseball was established in 1984, which means the association is nearing 30 years of season openers, but Parlow is quick to make the point it wasn’t until Save-On-Foods came on board as the main sponsor three years ago that opening day became an event.
“The kids look forward to it …it wouldn’t be the same event without them,” said Parlow.
As always, the players and their coaches all filed out onto the infield with each team carrying a placard for the sponsorship parade, then the playing of the national anthem and Save-On-Foods manager Bruce Brown throwing the ceremonial first pitch.
Saturday marked the start of the season which runs through until the end of June. There were 10 games played out up at Springwood Park on Saturday (and some 400 hot dogs devoured), and there were two close games in the Mosquito division — the Pirates beat the Mariners 8-7, and the Tigers beat the Royals 7-6.
