Erik Apperson’s facebook posting from October 22, 2016:

The Inaugural Guns & Hoses Softball Tournament is all wrapped up. Four teams consisting of our local public safety heroes met at Pykes Field today. Club rosters were filled by firefighters and law enforcement officers. All of the proceeds generated will be donated to Del Norte Search & Rescue and Explorer Post 911.

Fifteen tri-tip roasts were flavored, smoked and carved by yours truly and the sandwiches they were stuffed into seemed to be a crowd pleaser. I also had the privilege of providing commentary and background music with Nate Trimm and Jon Maxwell for the duration of the event. To say we had fun together would be an understatement.

Team DNSO was sponsored by The Club, Team Probation was sponsored by Wild Rivers Pizza, Team Fire was sponsored by California Auto Image and Team CHP was sponsored by the Fudo No Sei Kaku Dojo.

All teams went the distance as it was a double elimination tournament with a home run derby prior to the championship games. Custom patches, tee shirts and a banner were created to commemorate and memorialize the 2016 tournament and several people took time from their busy schedules to come watch.

Explorers and Search & Rescue members volunteered their time to help run the tournament and I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Justin Yslas and Kelsey Bozeman for all of their help too.

Jerrin Gill, Sarah Chavez and Sarah Asbury kept the games moving and brought much needed organization on and off the field of play.

The first game began at 9am after Chris Corpstein sang our national anthem. The championship round began at 5pm following a moment of reflection acknowledging the men and women lost recently while in service to public safety and our United States Military. And again our national anthem was delivered, this time by Deleana Saylor.

In the end, it came down to a championship battle between Team CHP and Team Probation. They both deserved to be in the final games and both games were great ones. Team Probation came out on top and took the 2016 banner.

Each and every team was a class act though and it made me even more proud to be a part of the public safety family. Seeing how much fun we all had reminds me that things like this need to happen more often. I will make certain that things just like this happen more often.

And on top of it all, we scratched together a few bucks for two programs that are essential to our community, one of which builds lives and another that saves them.

Thank you all for your support and time. See you next year for Guns & Hoses 2017!