Re: ASA Girls' Class A 12-Under Fast Pitch- Califo
I understand the OSU/YSU thing initially & early on, but, all of those Cali teams seemed pretty motivated to me, really. This was their BIG EVENT of the year also, and they pulled out ALL the stops to get wins including some questionable & unsettling gamesmanship tactics at times by Ohio standards - ask the Slammers about the Lakewood Ladies in the 7th inning of their game, trying in vain to rattle the pitcher. They play year round, against VERY strong competition in their friendlies, but the war drums were beating loudly this past week ... SHOW TIME!!
We had a couple of OC teams come and congratulate us and even "thank" us (LOL ?:-?) for beating Irvine Sting. We surprised some people with that win over a "top 5 OC team", and we also soothed the palate with some satisfaction within certain "hot" & competitive OC rivalries. They love seeing their "rivals" knocked out, it is one less "emotional" game for them to get through later (to their thinking).
Now, being from "Ohio", we both certainly may have sneaked up on a few teams early on, but there were scouts from numerous teams at ALL of our games, who were taking us seriously for "down stream" match up possibilities. It was a real shark tank, full of talented teams, who work hard mentally and physically (eye opening actually ?
) and take it VERY seriously. Prior to the start of things, I remember hearing about a Cali message board comment stating that based on the Slammers success back in Ohio ... that they "might" be a "middle of the road Cali rec ball team" - okee dokee, alrighty then ?... ?:
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The Slammers had even more people (scouts) watching them, because they had the perceived best pitcher there. Heard that from many coaches from several top Cali teams who were scouting them while we were there rooting for them. Not positive, but I believe that a USC scout watched one of their games as well, not positive of that ID though. After shutting out the Lakewood Ladies in 8 innings, including a bases loaded (no outs) situation in the ITB, the Slammers were the buzz. They then played eventual champ Victory USA very tough also in a 2-0 loss. The talk at the time was that the winner of that Slammer/Victory USA game would probably win it all (staying out of "Losers" bracket).
Those two teams (Lakewood Ladies & Victory USA) were in the championship game final, and were coincidentally the Lasers' two eliminating losses in bracket play. For the Slammers to hold those two teams to 2 runs total? - there is no way to adequately describe it, had to see it, great accomplishment, believe me I know ?>
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There is so much talent out there. And, yes, we worked hard for TWO YEARS pointing to this tournament as the ultimate goal, among other goals. Would liked to have done better, but we met our minimal goals, including taking the field and measuring up against the likes of Lakewood Ladies and some other OC teams.
What a week, and very cool experience, especially surviving on the ledge for 4 games, until a tired Silver team hooked up with an angry Lakewood team - we would have CRUSHED them if we were fresh ... ?IMHO (((
?:-? ))) ...
