South Lakes Summer Slam Tournament

After winning the Rec State Tournament, we decided to see how well we could compete at a competitive league tournament.  The tournament was at South Lakes, which is close to our house.  The first four games on Friday (7/12) evening and Saturday were to determine the seeding of the teams.  Sunday was the actual tournament.

Game #1 - 6:00 Friday, July 12th

We found out quickly that the competitive teams were better than the teams we faced at the State tournament, but we also found that we could compete with them.

It was hot, but Sarah did a good job of keeping hydrated, and she played well.

We lost the first game 6-1.

Game #2 - 7:20

Sarah pitched the second game and did pretty well.

Sarah and her friend, Brooke, do a good job of encouraging each other.

We lost this game 6-3.

Game #3 - Friday 10:00

We had a delay with the start of the game waiting for the umpires to finish another game.  Our girls and the other team's girls were out in the field having an impromptu dance off.  Most of our fans found this pretty entertaining.

We may have won the dance off, but we were dominated in this softball game.  We lost 0-8.

Game #4 - Saturday 11:00 Saturday, July 13th

We again were dominated 0-10.

Game #5 - Sunday 9:30 Sunday, July 14th

After competing in the first two games and taking our beating the last two games.  We were ready to start the tournament.  Our first game was against a team from Oklahoma.

We came out and played well.  We won 8-6.

Game #6 - Sunday 3:30

After a long break, we played our second tournament game in the heat of the day (and it was hot).

We played well and almost overcame bad calls by the ump that gave the other team 3 runs (I was so mad I thought I might get kicked out of the game).  We lost the game 5-3.

The pitching was considerably faster and more accurate at this tournament than what we saw throughout the year.  Our girls had to go up looking to hit, not walk.  I was happy with their aggressiveness and their level of success.  Sarah had a number of strikeouts in the first couple games, but also had some nice hits in the last half of the games, and showed she could play on a competitive league team.  In the field she is always focused and fierce.

Some think it was a tough way to end the year going 1-5 but I look at if differently.  I saw a rec league team that could compete (and even win) with the competitive league teams.  Great year Heat!