THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS cast members had a ball when they hit the dodgeball court for The Celebrity Tournament to Benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and celebrate the Dodgeball DVD release with star Ben Stiller on Dec. 7.

"It was a blast," unofficial team captain Thad Luckinbill (J.T.) raves. "It takes you back to junior high. I think Ashley Bashioum (Mac) has a couple of bruises, but I’m not going to lie to you: we were pretty good!"

Luckinbill points to the stellar team he helped recruit. "Athleticism was the No. 1 key," he says seriously, but with a smile. "Agility and determination. It's all about heart. I wanted all heart out there. We had a lot of quick people and then we had guys who could throw the ball.”

Word has it, no one controlled the ball better than Kristoff St. John (Neil), while Greg "The Rabbit" Rikaart (Kevin) had the speed to dodge whatever came his way. But after beating GENERAL HOSPITAL, the Y&R team had to face the "Mean Machine," a team of giant wrestlers and ultimate fighters.

"These guys were 6 feet 2 inches and 300 pounds," Rikaart marvels. "The MC was making jokes before the game started that the audience was going to see a lot of pretty people in a lot of pain."

The team didn't let that scare them. "Our momentum was really up and our adrenaline was going," Rikaart says. "Plus, we had a strategy. If someone from the other team was about to throw the ball and we had the other two balls, we'd make sure that we'd both throw the balls at the person throwing for the other team, so they wouldn't have time to recover and dodge the ball. It worked."

That win put Y&R in the final round, playing against the reigning champs from MTV's REAL WORLD LAS VEGAS and ROAD RULES, who rumor has it play this game during downtime. "We lost, but it was a heck of a lot of fun," Rikaart says, with a grin. "It got competitive and we did well. We're definitely going to do it again, and next year, we're going all the way!"