All the volunteer work put in by Bennett’s Creek Little League’s parents and officials for the last six days of baseball in Driver has been admirable. More importantly, all their work made the state baseball tournament for more than a dozen 9-10-year-old teams an experience worthy of a state tournament.

Many of the volunteer hours went into the tournament well before the last couple weeks leading up to it. But all the effort and work put in during the long, hot days of the tournament is even more impressive considering there was no Bennett’s Creek team in the tournament.

In most youth sports tournaments — and even up to such levels as the Olympics and the World Cup — the host team/country gets to be part of the games.

Most summers, Bennett’s Creek boasts two or three baseball teams that go through the all-star season as far as the state tournament.

This year, the BC Minors team advanced deep into its district tournament, winning three games to get within a game of the district final, which unfortunately cut them short of being in the state tournament hosted at their own facility.

All of the hard work by Bennett’s Creek volunteers made the tournament a home tournament as much as possible for all 16 teams.

The volunteers took this event seriously, and as a result the players wound up with a healthy balance between the competition of playing for the state title (with regional and World Series tournaments beyond) and keeping the fun and simplicity of a bunch of kids spending the summer playing baseball.

The fields are in great shape. EMT personnel from Suffolk Fire and Rescue were on hand throughout the games to respond quickly to possible injuries and heat-related issues.

And on that note, whoever thought of playing as many games as possible in the mornings deserves a big raise for their volunteer work.

The snowcone and smoothie stands were perfect additions, even while the tournament luckily avoided the full blast of summer heat for a Suffolk July.

Yes, a few parents were living a tad too vicariously through their young all-stars. Mostly, though, relaxing, fun ballgames outweighed the knowledge of each team having to win to keep its season going.

It’s an important task the BCLL volunteers helped achieve since, for many of the state tourney guests, this may have been their summer vacation.

Taking a week to come to Suffolk, from as far as Bristol for some, probably took the time and finances of a summer vacation.

It sure looked like it while snapping photos from down the first- or third-base lines, but hopefully Bennett’s Creek’s efforts made for a well-run baseball tournament and a nice family trip at the same time.