Senath State Bank triumphs in first-ever Kennett Co-Ed softball league championship

Senath State Bank claims victory in inaugural Kennett Co-Ed Softball League Championship

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Saturday, October 19, 2024

Kaelin Triggs

‘Senath State Bank’ pose with the inaugural Kennett Co-Ed Sports league trophy after winning the championship game 18-3 over ‘Next in Line’.

Photo provided.

KENNETT, Mo. - This year, Kennett Co-Ed sports opened up play for the first time ever on a revitalized Jones Park softball field.

In its first season, nine different recreational softball teams came out every week to compete. At the conclusion of the season, and the Co-Ed sports championship tournament, ‘Senath State Bank’ took home the inaugural Kennett Co-Ed Sports League Championship trophy.

They were led to a championship victory by the league MVP Shane McElwrath.

According to McElwrath, winning the inaugural trophy meant a lot, but finishing this season meant a lot more.

“This season went as good as it could have for our first year,” McElwrath said. “We are hopeful for next year, we will have more teams, and more people interested. We had a lot of support from everyone saying this was a good thing for Kennett.”

‘Senath State Bank’, ranked as the number three seed, made it past the first round against the ‘Misfits’ with a 23-8 victory. They then won their semi-final game 16-16 over the ‘Trash Talkers’ to make it to the championship game where they faced the number one seeded ‘Next in Line’.

They completed the upset with an 18-3 victory over the number one seed.

Justin Fowler at bat on opening day for Kennett Co-Ed Sport slow pitch softball league.

Photo by Kaelin Triggs, Staff.

“It was a really good day,” McElwrath said. ‘It was a good support at the ballpark, no arguments and so happened our team made it to the finals and won. I was really proud we were able to win that trophy for Matt Mobely at Senath State Bank.”

Along with McElwrath, his teammate Justin Fowler won the title of Home Run King for the league while Cole Washburn from Senath State Bank had the highest male batting average in the league (.875 avg). Reagan Tillmon recorded the highest female batting average with a .714 avg.

The committee for Kennett Co-Ed sports started putting plans together for a softball league around this time last year. McElwrath said he would have never thought they could get the league playing this fast and have the first season run as smooth as it did.

A big help was the revitalization of Jones Park, which was spearheaded through the works of Darrell Watson.

“Our goal this year was to just get things started and it went better than I can imagine,” Watson said. “The field looked great, we had enough teams for the league and for the tournament at the end. I didn’t hear anything from anyone about being unhappy with this first season.”

Watson and McElwrath look to improve on the league’s first year success. This improvement will start with a provision of safety by implementing lights for Jones Park. This will allow players to see better for the later games and can allow more night games throughout the week.

Along with lights, Watson hopes next year's budget can help them hire official umpires for their games.

“The community supported us really well,” Watson said. “Which was great. The goal is to expand on this next year. There were so many people involved behind the scenes. We had support from everyone and there wasn’t anyone around town who were proud of this league, but that’s just the beginning for Jones Park. We don’t want to just stop there.”

While Jones Park will close for the winter, Kennett Co-Ed sports is gearing up and starting plans for its next tournament in the Spring. They hope this will bring more people out and get the community excited for next season.

“This was great,” McElwrath said. “I would have never dreamt this would have happened as well as it did last year when we started talking about the league. We had a full season with only one forfeit, we had a league tournament at the end, businesses stepping up to sponsor teams, league jerseys. It was a nice little league, and Jones Park looks night and day different from what it did last year. I am proud of what we accomplished.”

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