Lakecity ball fans and players, alike, will get a chance to experience slo-pitch under the lights at the Sugar Cane Ball Diamond this weekend.
Shawn Poitras, organizer of the Lake Summer Madness slo-pitch tournament, said it’s shaping up to be an exciting weekend, with games getting underway tonight, Aug. 20, under the lights beginning at 7 p.m. and stretching until midnight.
In action will be eight teams, including two visiting teams from Kamloops — the Tomahawks and Qwesqi — and a team from Quesnel, The Bombers. Poitras’ team, Hakuna Matata, will be the hosts.
“Everyone’s pretty excited,” Poitras said. “It should be a good time for everyone. It’s not very often we get a chance to play under the lights much in this town.”
Tonight (Friday, Aug. 20), games are slated for 7 p.m., 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Poitras noted games will carry on throughout the day and into the evening on Saturday, with games resuming again Sunday morning. The tournament championship is slated for 6 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 22.
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Also at the tournament, teams and players will be paying a special tribute to Williams Lake First Nation community member Byron Louie, who passed away this past January. In recent years, Louie had hosted an annual ball tournament, the Wilfred Victor Louie Memorial Slo-Pitch Tournament at Sugar Cane, in honour of his late dad.
“We’ll be honouring him with some bat draws, we’ve got a canteen running with lots of food and everyone’s ready to go,” Poitras added.
The WLFN hosted a grand opening of the Sugar Cane Ball Diamond in July of 2018, which was made possible through a near $100,000 grant from the Blue Jays Care Foundation’s Field of Dreams program.
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