The annual Cody Cubs American Legion/VFW Baseball Wood Bat Tournament got off to an exciting start Thursday, as the hosts staged a late-inning comeback.

Trailing the Billings Blue Jays 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh, Cody loaded the bases and saw the tying and winning runs come across on a Jordan Wasia line-drive hit into right-center field.

Billings hoped for some payback as the team stayed in its dugout and prepped to face the Powell Pioneers in the second game of the three-day tournament.

The ominous gray clouds that had been slowly approaching through the early afternoon, soon opened up causing the proceedings to be held up.

Momentary easings of the rainfall allowed the Powell players to provide some entertainment.

For one showing, six players took positions as bowling pins, while another mimed the approach and release of a “bowling ball” toward them.

That bowling ball, a curled up Pioneer, rolled along the wet grass and knocked down all the pins for a strike.

Another scene saw a mimed soccer goal, with the Copa America and Euro Cup in mind, with the invisible ball getting past a diving goal keeper and the scorer breaking into a sliding, jersey throwing celebration.

The rain did eventually ease up, and the process of taking the tarps off of home plate and the pitchers mound, along with drying up the over-soaked patches around the infield, commenced.

But just as the Billings and Powell players looked ready to hit the field, the skies opened up again, tarps were put back into place and the game was canceled.

With clear skies forecast for the rest of the weekend, the scheduled slate of games at the Milward L. Simpson Stadium looked to go off without any further hitches.

See Thursday’s Powell Tribune for a recap of the Pioneers run against a tough field which includes games against two Colorado teams, Grand Junction, and Thunder Ridge, and Gallitan Valley, Montana.