FromTheStands

FYI  The tournament in Fort Lauderdale is a "qualifier" for the first ever Triple Crown National Championship to be played in New York City this summer.  TC has an elaborate ranking system for gold teams that gets you an invite to their National.  It is not a "play in" situation like ASA.  This weekend in Florida they are playing a RR on Sat/Sun, but starting Thursday 12 of the top ranked teams played in a TV bracket.  IG is the #6 team in the TC ranking for gold teams so they rec'vd a first round bye along with 3 other teams.  They played the Florida Storm this morning at 8 am and won 2-1 (Katie Marks, Katy HS was the WP and Kaylee Garner, Danbury HS got the save).  Immediately following that game 10 am, they played the Wichita Mustangs (Kansas) and won 8-2 (Erin Houthoofd, Barbers Hill HS got the win on 4 innings of work and Kaylee Garner again got the save).  Those wins put them in the TV championship game against the Gold Coast Hurricanes (Plantation, FL) at 12 noon.  Katie Marks got the start and pitched 5 2/3  superb innings before being relieved by Erin H. who closed out the 6th and faced 3 batters in the 7th (1 ground out, 1 hit and 1 walk). Kaylee Garner came in to close out, but GC rallied with 5 runs to win 8-5.  The tournament is a showcase tournament, therefore, one of the rules stipulates that there must be a certain number of uncommitted players on the field at all times.  For this reason, IG picked up three players from their 16u team to play the weekend.  We are very fortunate to be playing softball in January! Side note: Erin's dad said it was the strangest experience to sit in Buffalo Wild Wings and watch his daughter on the big screen playing softball.  ;D