Cranberry CUP wraps with softball tournament
CRANBERRY TWP — The Cranberry CUP started out as a small charity softball tournament in 2000, when seven neighborhoods competed and raised $3,800 for the American Cancer Society.
Now in its 25th year, the Cranberry CUP has grown dramatically to include a golf outing, a cornhole tournament and several other events. However, the softball tournament still is the main attraction — and it also has grown over the years.
This year, 37 area softball teams signed up to take part in the tournament, which concluded Sunday, Aug. 4. Teams were divided among three divisions: Open A, Open B and Neighborhood.
As the name implies, the neighborhood division only allows teams whose players all come from the same geographic neighborhood, while the open divisions feature no geographical restrictions. Open B division is a less-competitive tournament environment than Open A.
“There's Open A, which is the most competitive division,” tournament organizer Rich Vozel explained. “And then there's B division, who are mainly corporations that just want to sponsor a great cause.”
One of those corporations is Diesel Plumbing in Cranberry Township, which brought a team to the tournament for the fourth straight year won the Open B division title at last year’s Cranberry CUP. Diesel repeated as champions this year after defeating Dead Pandas in the finals.
To reach the finals, Diesel Plumbing won its semifinal against Beyond the Heights by mercy rule, with the final runs coming on a home run by Brian Beall.
“We've been in it for four years,” said Beall, who owns Diesel Plumbing. “It’s a great cause. I live in Cranberry and I like to support our community.”
Although fellow Open B division team the Pounders was eliminated early on Sunday, its members stuck around to watch the rest of the tournament. The Pounders were managed by Eric Rice and sponsored by real estate company Rice Pegher, of which Rice is CEO.
Rice said this was the team’s first year entering the CUP, although this wasn’t his first time entering as a player, as he participated roughly a decade ago.
“I used to play in the neighborhood division about a decade ago when I lived in Cranberry Township,” Rice said. “I always thought it was such a great organization and such a great cause that I finally put a team together to come back and play in the open division now that I’m no longer in Cranberry Township.”
According to Vozel, when the softball tournament began, the neighborhood division was the only division, a tournament consisted only of teams making up each of Cranberry’s neighborhoods. Eventually, the tournament outgrew Cranberry, and the Open divisions were introduced.
“What happened is some people wanted to play, but they didn't have enough people in their neighborhood to sign up,” Vozel said. “So that's what the Open division came in.”
In addition to a trophy, the three winning teams will each receive a commemorative T-shirt for all the players, as well as a date with the actual “Cranberry Cup.”
“They get presented with the Cranberry Cup that they keep for the year, kind of like the Stanley Cup for hockey,” Vozel said. “They keep it all year and then bring it back as the next year's champion.”
