The town of Pioche held two horseshoe tournaments over the holiday weekend with a combined 115 players between the two tournaments.
Saturday’s event was a singles tournament with 51 pitchers participating. The pitchers were split into three classes – the A class, the B class and the C class.
In the A class, Stephen Lopez of Kingman, Arizona took home the victory. He was followed up by Pioche native Dell O’Conner, who got the second-place finish.
The champion of the B class was Bubba Baker from Searchlight. The second-place finisher in the B class was Kaz Martin from Henderson.
In the C class, the top spot went to Pahrump native Mike “Nico” Nicosia. Nico topped his second-place competitor, Chris Magnum of Caliente.
For their top-2 finishing spots, each pitcher received a cash prize and a trophy.
Sunday’s event was a doubles tournament with 64 pitchers divided into an A class and a B class.
In the A class, the team of TJ Grose of Henderson and Stephen Lopez took home first place.
Lopez and Grose finished the tournament with a perfect 4-0 record.
They defeated the second-place finishing combo of Matt Jose and Kobe Kelley in the championship game.
Jose and Kelley finished the tournament with a 5-2 record. Their lone loss of the event came in the first matchup before they rattled off five straight wins to get to the championship game.
The B class championship team was made up of two Pahrump natives in Mark Kaczmarek and Don Brown.
Kaczmarek and Brown came out of the loser’s bracket to get the win in the championship game.
The team of Mikey Workman and Maddy Workman, a father-daughter duo from Henderson, took home second place in the B class.
Horseshoes will return to Southern Nevada this weekend with another packed multi-event weekend. The Reno Balloon events that were scheduled to take place this weekend have been canceled.
The tournaments will kick off with a Nevada State Horseshoe Pitching Association sanctioned event on Saturday, Sept. 10, at Leavitt Park. This tournament will begin at 9 a.m.
On Sunday, the Shoes &Brews Pitching Series will resume their season with an event at Moose Lodge #808 in Pahrump. This tournament is set to begin at 6 p.m.
Contact sports writer/editor Danny Smyth at dsmyth@pvtimes.com. Follow @the_dannysmyth on Twitter.