Smoky skies cause tournament changes

Due to the smoky conditions in the valley last week, District 47 had to make some drastic decisions in order to make sure that teams qualified for the Section 2 tournament, which began last weekend.

The Willows 11-12 softball team had lost its first game of a best-of-three series against Paradise and was scheduled to play the second game. However due to the smoke, the tournament was declared a single-elimination event and Willows was thus eliminated for having lost to Paradise in the first game of the series.

Likewise, the Willows junior softball team was eliminated from the junior tournament. Willows lost to Paradise on July 7 and was scheduled to play an elimination game. But instead, Willows was eliminated due to the one loss.

Orland had not yet played its junior softball opener and finally got in the game on Thursday. Orland lost to eventual champion Lake Oroville and was eliminated.