POULSBO — Snider Park was ablaze with baseball fever April 8 for opening day of the North Kitsap Babe Ruth season. Unfortunately, by the end of the day, endless rain and spring temperatures had cooled the fire.

A continuous spring drizzle which intensified on and off throughout the weekend led to the cancellation of the final Major league contest Saturday and all four games scheduled for Sunday.

The games have not yet been rescheduled, but there is time reserved at the end of the season for make up contests.

Babe Ruth action started with Preparatory division play at 9 a.m. April 8 as Kitsap Towing took on Zimmer Construction. In the second game of the year, last year’s top prep team, Construction Development took on Tolman, Kirk & Franz.

Kitsap Towing picked up the win by a 9-5 margin, and Construction Development won a 4-5 barn burner over a near completely new TKF team.

The only Majors division game of the weekend also rang in the new season in competitive style as Tim Ryan Construction faced off against Action Training Systems. The effort went into extra innings where TRC’s bats helped the team capture its first win by a count of 9-3.

“They did good for being out in the cold,” said TRC manager Rick Ritter. “It’s the first game — everyone’s got the first game jitters. We hung in there, we just never gave up.”

In fact, neither team gave up, but errors eventually gave TRC a foothold.

After a defensively dominated first inning, Nathan Camp smacked ATS’ only hit of the game in the bottom of the second. But in the top of the third, TRC’s offense prevailed.

Austin Abrahamsen walked and stole second and third before another batter walked. Then Greg Ritter socked an RBI single to score the first two runs of the game.

The lead stood into the top of the fifth, where TRC landed two runners on base, courtesy of ATS errors, and Mario McLaughlin extended the lead with another RBI.

ATS rallied behind catcher Camp’s quick thinking behind the plate, ending the inning with a run-down on the third base line.

“Despite the fact that we didn’t have much time to practice, they did well defensively. Our catcher made some heads-up throws to get (two) run-downs,” said ATS manager Michael Camp, adding that the team hadn’t had time to practice run-down technique in is two weeks of preseason practice. “Some of those things they were just doing on their own.”

In the bottom of the sixth inning, ATS knew the game was in its own offensive hands.

With only one hit registered on the game in the second inning, ATS utilized TRC mistakes to engineer a comeback. Two walks moved two ATS runners on base, and an error on an infield chopper scored Mack Kunold for the first run of the effort, moving the tying run into scoring position.

ATS’ Cameron Mills scored on a wild pitch to cut the lead. Then Jordan Seth laid down a near perfectly placed squeeze bunt, scoring Camp to tie the game at three.

After a silent seventh, the game went into an extra frame where TRC sealed the game.

“Our bats came alive when we needed them to,” coach Ritter said.

“It started with a few hits then all of a sudden, everyone was hitting,” Greg Ritter added.

McLaughlin scored on an ATS error to take the advantage, then Ritter scored on a wild pitch. Brown crossed the plate courtesy of another error, and three others crossed courtesy of RBI base hits, making the final score 9-3.