The North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance 29th annual Gay Softball World Series officially kicked off on Sunday, Aug. 14, with opening ceremonies held at Embarcadero Park. Series 2005 featured competition for top honors in Open Division A, B, C and D, as well as Women’s Competitive, Alternative and Recreational Divisions. Over 180 teams comprised of players in 39 softball leagues from 35 cities across the U.S. traveled to San Diego for the annual competition.

Teams competed in a multi-elimination, round-robin type of tournament, ensuring that no team would be immediately eliminated from the competition. Most teams played multiple games throughout each day, jockeying for higher seed positions as the division championship games drew near on Saturday, Aug. 20.

All teams played well and many of the preliminary games featured wonderful exhibitions of athletics, which provided spectators with nail-biting excitement as teams pulled out all the stops in their bids for top spots.

The Open A Division pitted the L.A. Vipers against the Ft. Lauderdale Stingers. The Stingers forced an “if” game with a 21-11 win in the first game by playing hard and managing to power through a number of big hits, while keeping the Vipers in check on offense. Since it was a double-elimination tournament, the Vipers had to lose again in order to relinquish the championship.

But the Vipers did not succumb, and managed to regain their focus, capturing the title with a solid 13-6 victory. Both games were masterfully played with good offense and defense, and could easily have gone in either direction, but the Vipers managed to stay on top through the end.

The Open B Division title was won by the D.C. Disturbance with a 9-5 win over the San Francisco Spitfire.

The Open C Division game found the Seattle Blue Sox taking on the San Francisco Scorpions. The Scorpions won 14-7 to force the “if” game, but Seattle came back to win by a score of 20-17 in the championship. The Blue Sox held on to the victory despite the Scorpions jumping into the lead early in the second game.

“We just buckled down and continued to play without letting the fact that we were behind get us down,” said Mike Farris of the Blue Sox. “We’re playing to win, not playing ‘not to lose.’”

Several good plays later and strong steady hits brought the Blue Sox back from behind and nudged them further and further into the lead. The Scorpions began making more and more errors, despite occasionally looking to be on the verge of a comeback that never fully materialized.

In the Open D Division, the Tampa Simons and Leoni Titans beat the Nashville Shock in a 21-6 single-game win.

The Women’s Competitive Division Championship was won by the undefeated Texas Reserve. They defeated the Minnesota Rebels 15-5 in the championship to cap their undefeated run. The Rebels came up just short in the final game, but did finish in second place, beating the San Francisco Fire earlier that day with a 12-8 victory.

On Aug. 19, the Houston Blaze captured the Women’s Recreational Division title by defeating the Kansas City Bullets 11-4. Houston remained undefeated throughout the series. San Diego’s Powerhouse 2 came back from the losers’ bracket to take third place in the division.