Bayles Exploration wins fifth straight Blue Mountain Invitational Softball championship

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
Bayles Exploration of Herriman, UT clobbered Bountiful, UT’s Kings 12-1 to win their fifth straight Blue Mountain Invitational Fastpitch Softball Tournament championship on Saturday, July 26.
Bayles Exploration has dominated the Pioneer Day softball scene in Monticello over the course of the past five seasons while at the same time suffering from a bit of an identity crisis.
For the past four years the team entered the annual tournament as Ranlife, but they played all their games in blue jerseys that sported an “FCM” logo, for First Colony Mortgage.
There was even one player wearing a “Greystone Mortgage” jersey in the 2024 tournament. In 2021 they ended fellow Herriman team Page Brake’s four-year title run.
This year they all sported the same jersey at least, with a “Bayles Fastpitch” logo to reflect their Blanding sponsorship. But they suspiciously all wore “PB” hats, which presumably stands for Page Brake.
Whoever they are and wherever they come from, they have been prolific in the longest consecutively-running mens fastpitch softball tournament in the nation.
In the 2025 edition of the tournament this past weekend Bayles Exploration outlasted eight other teams to win the title. They were a perfect 6-0, outscoring their opponents 80-10 along the way.
Runners-up Kings were 4-1 on the weekend with their only loss coming in the championship game. They outscored their opponents 49-24.
WECO SHOCK, hailing from Grand Junction, and Monticello’s Farm Bureau team were both eliminated in the championship bracket semifinals.
Drillers, who traveled from South Ogden to Monticello to play in the tournament, won the drop-down bracket championship with a hard-fought 10-8 win over hometown team Precision Construction.
Kings player Ty Wartman won during the Pioneer Day Home Run Derby to start the weekend.