They came out of thin air. (Literally)

Can you say Up-set!

Last year the Mountain Country Plumbing team didn’t exist. In the past year, the fledgling team played near the top of the league all summer long, and on Sunday, won the Gilpin County Softball League Championship Tournament.

“We are the champions,” they chanted at the end of the game, joy in their faces after an intense two days of slamming balls and running bases.

The Tanya Putnam Memorial Tournament began last week on Tuesday. On Thursday night, Mountain Country played the undefeated Rollinsville Rockies, last year’s champions. Mountain Country took the lead but soon the game was tied as the teams battled into the sunset.

Mountain Country played like it was all about winning and inched their way to a 6-6 tie in the sixth inning when the umpire called the game on account of no more light and the playerscouldn’t see. The teams agreed to have a playoff inning first thing Saturday morning before the semi-final championships.

With two teams fired up to play at the end of the season, it was an anticlimactic beginning to the second to last day of games. But the one-inning showdown turned out to be an entire game. Neither team could pull ahead and the game was tied 8-8 at the end of seven innings. And then the Plumbing team forged ahead, beating the Rockies, 13-8.

Then the boys and girls of summer tossed in their mitts.