18 & U-- AFA National Softball Tournament in full swing

[Old Cardinal]

I was out till late last night at the Beaumont Entertainment Complex to watch the best 18 & U girls of the world play Softball. The Texas Thunder beat a top-ranked St Louis Illusion team 4-2 and then turned around and took out California's touted top team 2-1. Texas Thunder has one 17 year old and the rest are 16 year olds. Kaliegh Wallace, a Junior HS player, from Bridge City is turning into a great hitter and outfielder and her BC teammate Elena Clinton, a Soph pitcher, from BC, were instrumental in the big wins....I think that the BLAST GOLD however, has a good chance of winning out over the other 150 teams-They have for PITCHERS and Auxiliary- Holly Tankersley, All State from Kirbyville; Bobbitt, All State, from Vidor; Meagan Godwin All State Bridge City and Melissa Verde All State from Beaumont Kelly on their mound Staff. Also, Jessica Lemoine, All State Bridge City, has been exceptional at the plate and picking people off- in this series. The remainder of the team are scholarshiped Freshmen from Louisiana-Lafayette College. Come on out to Beaumont, as we head toward the weekend and you will see the best-of the best go at it! The teams from the Gulf Coast of Texas and the assorted California teams, appear to have a slight edge over the rest of the field.

<small>[ July 30, 2003, 11:33 AM: Message edited by: Old Cardinal ]</small>

[slpybear the bullfan]

Card,

The local team is playing in some other association's nation tournament in Garland. I don't have a clue what all the different ones are.

Kasi's team won both of their pool games, we will see how they do tonight in bracket play. She set down the first 7 batters she faced with strikeouts, then the heat got to her and started wearing her down. But, if you play at 4 pm in North Texas when it is 103°, that is what you expect.

I'll try and keep you posted.

[Big Cheese]

Old Card, is there a Tri-City team playing in that tournament? I think there is an 18 & U team from here and I was just wondering if they made it that far.

[Old Cardinal]

To Big Cheese- I would have to know the "exact" name of the team. If I can find this out, I can keep you posted. You can also look at the "AFA Softball" link on Google Search Engine and see the names of the teams playing in Beaumont....To SpyBear: The Big ones for 18 & U, are the National 18 & U Championship in Beaumont, and also an AFA Gold team Invitational in Oregon. ASA & USA Fastpitch also has a National Tournament for Select teams. The AFA 18 & U Nationals is the standard everyone wants to qualify for. The Tournament in Garland is the ASA Nationals..... It's kind of confusing for me to keep up with all of the growth of this phenomenonal Athletic explosion. ASA has the lion's share of the 10 & U, 12&U and splits the 14 & U; while AFA has the 16 & U and 18 & U, almost exclusively......... I watch the 3A, 4A, and 5A All Staters from Texas HS Softball and they are just members of the various teams and not real standouts-the competition is that awesome.

<small>[ July 31, 2003, 11:54 AM: Message edited by: Old Cardinal ]</small>

[Old Cardinal]

University of Louisiana Layfayette to get some hum-dinger Pitchers------Heather Bobbitt from Vidor and Holly Tankersley from the BLAST GOLD, are both going to ULL this fall. What a good duel addition to the pitching staff there. They are strutting their stuff in the AFA Nationals.... Also, Bridge City's Hailey Simonton is playing some flawless hard-nosed softball in the tournament. And H-F's, HS Pitcher, for next year is much improved in Tournament play this summer-she was already a superior pitcher in HS this past season. The continued intensity of the 4 players mentioned is quite apparent!.... Nederland, Kelly, Port Neches-Groves, Vidor, H-F, WO-S, Bridge City, OF, LCM, and several other local HS have girls represented on various select teams..I believe Bridge City has SEVEN girls parcelled out among various Select teams that are in the Bracket play....We had a little rain today but I am headed over for the games tonight.

<small>[ July 31, 2003, 05:23 PM: Message edited by: Old Cardinal ]</small>

[Old Cardinal]

Well the field has narrowed down to a handful of teams going for the National Championship bracketing tomorrow. I was amazed how the local teams(around Beaumont) were so tough. Little teams like the Orange Crush and Texas Thunder White, loaded with 15 and 16 year olds made it to the top half of the brackets...Well they qualified to play with the 18 year olds and beat a lot of seasoned teams that were all made up of 18 year olds. The local teams that survived into the top 13 remaining teams, included- Beaumont Blast, Blast Gold, Gulf Coast Breakers, and Beaumont Blast Red. Other Gulf Coast teams that survived the rough competition included-Houston Power(greater Hou.), Texas Thunderbolts Gold(Greater Houston), Team Texas( Greater Houston area) and Challengers(Greater Angleton area), Texas Thunder( Coastal Bend area)and Texas Energy(Hou. area, STATE AFA Champ this season). Some of the teams to survive toward the top half of the bracketing, from other parts of the state were: Lady Marvs Gold(Greater Marshall area), San Antonio Nightmare(Greater S. A. area),Austin Blue Storm(greater Austin area), San Antonio Royals(Greater S.A. area)....All in all, the Texas Coastal teams did well, but the Lionettes and RR Gold( last years Champ), from Southern California, still have the inside track for the National Championship-toworrow will tell. Louisiana teams like the Illusion (Lafayette), Louisiana Rippers(greater Monroe area), Cajun Express( a composite from everywhere); were in the top half of the Bracketing survivors.. Many of the teams arriving from Louisiana, Illinois, Oklahoma, California and others were made up solely of Scholarshiped Freshman and Sophomore girls from good College programs; I was amazed how our Texas HS Select and (in many cases, All State) players stood up to the stiff competition.

[Old Cardinal]

Well it ended in the ninth inning(two international tie-breakers), with a towering home run by a High School Senior from DesPlaines IL, on the Dupage Wildcat team. They upset the defending National Champion Rambling Rebels Gold from Southern California. What a grand finale! Third place went to a good Oklahoma team. Forty-six Texas teams played in the Tournament, Texas Energy(our Texas State AFA champ) was the last to bit the dirt. ....Most of the High School Coaches that have winning teams were there-you could tell they are Coaches that love the sport and are not just trying to get a little pay added on their check. The place was full of College scouts, looking over the best that America has to offer in softball skills. It was kind of interesting to talk to the Wildcat parents after they won over another good California team, to propel them into the finals. They came thinking they would not get that far; even thinking some of the ILs teams could well beat them. The only team to beat them was the Texas Energy-but they came back through the losers bracket(even having to beat the Texas Energy) to ultimately emerge the National Champions for 2003..... I talked to Tommy Voss, things still look good for us having an All Classification Softball Tournament for Texas and Louisiana teams called the TX/LA Classic! I will be near the end of February 2004.

<small>[ August 03, 2003, 04:22 PM: Message edited by: Old Cardinal ]</small>