Manhattan Mayhem posing with their second place trophy.
After a string of spring losses, six games, two days and one tournament, Pier 40’s first fast-pitch softball league, Manhattan Mayhem, won an astounding second place in the United States Specialized Sports Association’s Summer Kick Off Softball Tournament on Long Island June 23.
Manhattan Mayhem is the borough’s first competitive girls travel softball team, run by coach Renae Beauchman, who also teaches at Pier 40’s after school and summer softball programs. Her 14U division (ages 14 and under), entered the Summer Kick-Off Tournament in Huntington, Long Island, as a relatively new team.
Beauchman started the travel team eight months ago, recruiting some of the girls she had coached at Pier 40. They practiced mostly at Pier 40 and the Battery Park City ballfields, but soon after they began, Superstorm Sandy crashed in, leaving their fields damaged for months.
“We got some work in, but it was hard. Power was out for so long,” Beauchman said.
The team lost twice and tied on the tournament’s first day, June 22, but Beauchman wrote in an email, “Our second game on Saturday we came back from a 7-0 deficit to tie the team 7-7 in the last inning with the winning run getting tagged out at home!”
But, she added, “We were rolling over them on Sunday,” winning two games, before falling to the Long Island Nitros in the championship.
