Knocking it out of the park: Dartmouth Dynamites take over tournament

Jul 13, 2025

The Dartmouth Dynamites dominated the diamond in the Summer Blast Softball Tournament, taking home multiple wins across three teams.

Softball Commissioner Brian Thomas said the softball program grows every year and has had a successful season.

"Everybody has been keen to helping out," he said. "All the money that we make goes right back into the program for the rec season and travel seasons."

Thomas said that program is something he fights for, wanting to bring equal opportunity for the girls interested in sports like softball.

"You see that growth. I've coached a lot of these kids since they were small," he said. "[Seeing] what they've done growing as players [and] also growing as young ladies, it's been great to see."

The tournament saw three teams competing over the course of three days at Quinn Elementary. 

On Friday, June 11 the 10U team won 13 to 4 against Fairhaven, the 12U Black team won 13 to 0 against the South Shore Patriots and the 12U Green team won 10 to 8 against Freelake. 

Saturday, June 12 saw losses for the 10U team against Seekonk and Swansea. 

12U Black defeated Tewksbury Blue 13 to 0 and Tewksbury Red 8 to 1. The 12U Green defeated Swansea 6 to 3 and Somerset 15 to 3. 

The 12U team said that teamwork was one of the biggest reasons as to why they have been seeing success. 

Khallie Donahue said she loves pitching and said hot days like Saturday present challenges. While the team saw wins, Donahue said there's elements she wants to work on.

"I wanna try to have my mindset on those mistakes overnight and try to figure out how we can fix those," she said.

Skylar Benjamin likes the intensity the games bring and that she enjoys the chants from her teammates in the dugout.  

"I feel like this game we were all super focused," she said.

Head coach of the 12U Green team Mike Reynolds said that the team this year is a tight knit group and that the girls have had big growth during the season. From parent volunteers to teamwork, he said the closeness goes a long way.

According to Reynolds, his biggest struggles have been the ability to highlight all of his players' talents equally.

"All 11 girls deserve to be out on that field, so me as a coach it's so hard to just only put nine out," he said.