Sports

Paddlers for Humanity and Hoops 4 Hope, two stalwart nonprofit organizations that work to better the lives of children here and abroad, are to have fund-raising events this weekend.

The Bad News Bubs, for the third straight year, and the Jetty Grinders, coming out of the losers brackets, won the A and B championships in the four-day Travis Field memorial coed slow-pitch softball tournament held from last Thursday through Sunday at the Terry King ball field in Amagansett.

Two East Hampton High School coaches, Dan White and Kevin McConville, whose teams handily won league titles in the past school year — boys basketball in White’s case and boys tennis in McConville’s — are bowing out.

I had done some fishing a few days earlier at Jessup’s Neck, and the bluefish were hungry, taking full advantage of my four-ounce diamond jig. I had my fill of fish, so I got on my motorcycle.

East Hampton Town’s men’s and women’s teams won the Hampton Lifeguard Association’s invitational tournament last Thursday at East Hampton Village’s Main Beach.

The heroism of Lance Cpl. Jordan C. Haerter was remembered Sunday morning as more than 400 runners and walkers, some carrying United States and Marine Corps flags, looped through Sag Harbor.

“It’s been a great season thus far,” Harvey Bennett, former owner of the Tackle Shop in Amagansett, said of blue-claw crabs. “They are large and plentiful. More people need to take advantage of it. Blue-claws are the best to eat.” 

A repeat was not to be for the Sag Harbor Whalers in the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League this year, given their semifinal-round series loss last week to the South Shore Clippers of Bellport.

After coaching East Hampton High School’s boys basketball team for the past seven years, Dan White resigned last week to coach at Pierson High in Sag Harbor, where he teaches.

A benefit softball game between the staff and members of the South Fork Country Club last month raised $30,000 for the East Hampton, Springs, and Montauk food pantries.

If I truly wanted to catch a fluke, for all practical purposes I would need to hop aboard one of the several fine party boats that set sail from Montauk, which are significantly closer to the more productive fishing grounds.

For years, the East Hampton Town summer sailing program was beloved by many, giving people 12 and older a fun and affordable way to learn to sail on Gardiner’s Bay, but for the second summer in a row the popular program is off the calendar, leaving people to wonder if it will ever return. “The town intended to continue offering the program last summer and this summer, but was unable to fill the program director position," said the recreation superintendent.

The defending-champion Sag Harbor Whalers have been in a playoff fight this week with the South Shore Clippers, losing the deciding third game Thursday at Mashashimuet Park.

The invitational East Hampton ocean lifeguard tournament is to be held Thursday, July 27, at East Hampton Village's Main Beach and will be bigger than it's ever been, what with 14 men's and nine women's teams. Distance swims, landline rescues, rescue board relays, beach run relays, run-swim-run relays, and beach flags are to be contested.

Cole Brauer, a 2012 graduate of East Hampton High School, recently became the first female ever to win the Bermuda One-Two sailing race, which began with a single-handed 668-nautical-mile leg from Newport, R.I., to St. George’s, and ended with a double-handed St. George’s-to-Newport leg.

Saturday’s Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League’s all-star game, played at Sag Harbor’s Mashashimuet Park, the summer home of the Sag Harbor Whalers, ended, for the first time in its 10-year history, in a tie, at 9-9. Sunday’s sprint triathlon to the Montauk Lighthouse, an event that attracted a field of 447, was won by last year’s runner-up, Matthew Raske, in 1 hour, 6 minutes, and 25 seconds.

I-Tri’s youth triathlon at Noyac’s Long Beach and the Hampton Lifeguard Association’s run-swim-run at Amagansett’s Atlantic Avenue Beach led off a big weekend for athletic events here.

The fishing for fluke has continued to deteriorate in Block Island Sound where dozens of boats used to drift their baited hooks on a daily basis in summer. Looking at my log book on the ride out, I noted that I had made two trips last summer and we failed to land a keeper. Not good.

Pickleball, says Erin McHugh, who gave a talk on the popular paddle sport at BookHampton not long ago, “takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master,” favoring strategy and finesse.

“It’s tough,” John Grisch, who coached the East Hampton Little League’s 11-and-12-year-old entry in the District 36 tournament, said following Saturday’s 11-10 loss to Riverhead in the title game played at Riverhead’s Stotzky Park.

From the Hampton Lifeguard Association’s Run-Swim-Run in Amagansett, to I-Tri’s youth triathlon at Noyac’s Long Beach and the Rell Sunn surf contest at Ditch Plain in Montauk, to the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League’s all-star game in Sag Harbor, to the Montauk Lighthouse sprint triathlon.

The popular Montauk Grand Slam charity fishing tournament will be held this weekend at Uihlein’s Marina in Montauk. At 5 p.m. Sunday, the tournament will crown Capt. Frank Braddick as the Fishing Legend of the Year.

The benefit Rell Sunn Surf Contest will be held on Saturday at Ditch Plain Beach in Montauk, with several of Montauk’s top-ranked young surfers competing, among them Chase Lieder and Chloe Coleman, both of whom graduated from East Hampton High School in June, and Tucker Coleman, 20.

East Hampton’s 11-and-12-year-old Little League all-star team shut out the North Shore Nationals 4-0 in Rocky Point Thursday evening to advance to the District 36 final at Riverhead’s Stotzky Park on Saturday at 10 a.m.

John Loeffel bested a field of 250 in 25 minutes and 13.51 seconds, comfortably ahead of Sergey Avrimenko, the runner-up, at Southampton’s Lake Agawam park on Sunday.

East Hampton’s 11-and-12-year-old Little League traveling all-star boys team finished pool play at 4-0 thanks to an 8-2 win over North Shore American at the Stephen Hand’s Path fields here Saturday morning. They’ll play in the District 36 semifinal Thursday night at Rocky Point.

“Definitely, the better fishing has been out at Montauk,” Ken Morse of Tight Lines Tackle said Monday. “The bass fishing remains solid and there are acres and acres of bluefish between 10 and 18 pounds roaming around.”

“Soldier Ride,” said Peter Honerkamp, an owner of the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, where Soldier Ride was conceived, “became a rehabilitative tool so the wounded could get out of their hospital beds, empowering themselves and their fellow wounded, setting an example for the incoming wounded, and going out into the communities they sacrificed so much for.” This year's ride returns on July 15 with a 24-mile cycle taking participants from the Amagansett Firehouse to East Hampton and Sag Harbor before returning to its starting point.

“These kids, in all shapes and sizes, and from all sorts of backgrounds, coming from all over the world and putting aside their differences to play together on a team for the summer,” Coach Jack Tobin said of the Sag Harbor Whalers collegiate baseball team. “It gives you hope for the future of the planet.”

Earl Hopson, a wide receiver in football, shooting guard in basketball, and all-county long-jumper, Erin Bock Abran, an all-county field hockey and softball player, and Kim Valverde-Solis, a four-time all-county girls volleyballer, are to be inducted into East Hampton High School’s Hall of Fame in the fall.