“It’s like a community hug,” said Chris Field, describing the annual Travis Field Memorial Softball Tournament in memory of his son. It’s been 18 years since Travis, an East Hampton High School graduate, was killed in a car accident at just 20 years old, but the community still comes together at the Terry King Ball Field in Amagansett for one epic weekend every summer to play ball in his honor.
“It warms my heart so much. My son’s looking down and it’s great. It really is,” Field said. “Everything about him was love and keeping everybody happy. The whole town comes together and that’s what just makes you feel the love. It just keeps going and it’s awesome.”
Seventeen coed softball teams took part in last weekend’s double-elimination tournament. The Raptors won the A bracket, while the Bonac Vice were the B bracket champs. If that sounds familiar, it was a repeat of the 2025 results. The Raptors, consisting of the Daunt and Davis families and their honorary family members, have taken the A bracket three years in a row.
“When you look up ‘big dog’ in the dictionary, you just see a picture of the Raptors,” said Anthony Daunt.
The Field family played for the Pink Panthers, whose jerseys had Travis’s number 11 on the back and the words “Smile for me.”
“It’s cool to think about when we first started, and we were a little bit more youthful back then, and now, it’s still fun,” said Dylan Field, Travis’s cousin. The Panthers lost their first game last Thursday night to Nicko’s Pools, then beat Hamptons Glass and Mirror Saturday afternoon, before getting knocked out by Smokin’ Wolf’s Taste Our Sauce Saturday night.
“I was on the Talkhouse team and we did not do so well,” said Jackson Carney, a rising senior who plays varsity baseball for East Hampton. His team was eliminated Saturday morning after losing two in a row. “We had a lot of guys who couldn’t make it due to work, so it was a little inconsistent, but it was still fun. So many people are local and playing something that everyone loves together, and making teams. It’s all good-spirited.”
Carney’s head coach on the varsity baseball team, Vinny Alversa, played with the Bad News Bubs, who made it to Sunday, but lost to the Raptors and then were eliminated by Taste Our Sauce.
“It’s the one week of the year we all know where we’re going to be,” Alversa said. “You’re going to have a great conversation, hang out, watch some softball, eat some great food and just hang. Best time of year, honestly it is.”
Alversa’s son Kai just graduated from Bridgehampton High School, where he was a starting pitcher on the varsity baseball team that made it to the New York State final four for the first time this year. Kai was awarded a Travis Field Memorial Scholarship at graduation. The awards are given to students who share Field’s love of sports and dedication to community service. The past weekend’s tournament helps fund those awards.
“The scholarships are amazing,” Coach Alversa said. “We’re very blessed that my oldest son won one this year, which is pretty cool.”
“It’s for a good cause, for the high school kids,” Chris Field said. “Hopefully we’ll keep it going forward.”
