PEKIN – The closer it gets to the second weekend in September, don’t be surprised if you happen to see the coaching staff and members of the T-Ball team from Pekin Park District’s Illinois River Valley Special Recreation Association checking out the skies, looking for fair weather to get some state championship games in.

Last year’s Special Olympics State T-Ball and Softball games in Decatur were cancelled by fall rains and, now that IRVSRA T-Ball has qualified for State this year, they would not want a meteorological repeat of last year’s weather to spoil it.

The team, co-coached by Bill Wireman, Gail Smith, and David Campbell, will be going to the State T-Ball Finals in Decatur, part of Special Olympics Illinois’ Outdoor Sports Festival, being held Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 12 and 13.

IRVSRA T-Ball managed to sweep their two opponents in District competition this past weekend at Land of Lincoln Softball Complex in Springfield, giving the players and their trio of co-coaches the chance to look forward to playing in the big game this fall.

Members of the IRVSRA Flames T-Ball team are: Annette Bartley, Carol Ann Benjamin, David Campbell, Kathy Dekyser, Erin Fitzanko, Donald Frakes, Mike Haskins, Donald Hrivnak, Dennis Madura, Sherilyn Niemeyer, Doug Phillips, Judith Rich-Smith, Kevin Thompson, James Wireman, and Anna Harker.

IRVSRA started the day in District play on Saturday with a four-inning 22-15 win over the Carterville, Ill.-based Progress Port Smashers. Smith said all of IRVSRA’s players “did really well in that game. We saw a lot of homers and triples.”

In their second game of the day, IRVSRA edged out the River Valley Rockers, 24-20, after five innings. Each game IRVSRA played lasted one hour.

“That second game was much tougher,” Smith conceded.

“They had some guys who could really hit the ball,” explained Co-Coach Bill Wireman. He said having a game resulting in double digit points depends on the fielders.

“If we hit the ball and it goes into the outfield, and if the fielders can’t get to it, we will run it,” Wireman said. “(River Valley Rockers) had a couple guys who hit the ball in to the sunset.”

“We figured where they were hitting the ball,” Wireman said. “They were hitting it in the same place all the time. That meant we rearranged our fielding to stop them.”

The Flames entered District competition with a season record of 2-1, and after Saturday’s games, are eagerly awaiting State competition with a 4-1 mark.

IRVSRA needed to win both games to go to State in the Fall, Smith said. To split the pair would have meant a second place finish and no trip to State.

Other sports athletes participate in that are part of the Outdoor Sports Festival include: Golf, held in Forsyth, and an equestrian competition, held in Decatur. A total of 670 athletes from across the state participated in the Outdoor Sports Festival last year.

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