Congratulations to our hard-working young ladies for their 5th Place overall finish out of 56 teams at the USSSA 14u World Series in Lawrence, Kansas!!  Awesome way to finish our best season to date!!  

We began the week-long World Series on Monday with a great day of Opening Ceremonies and socializing with some of the best teams in the Midwest.  Everyone had a blast!  On Tuesday the pool games began with the heat index reaching 115-deg, then fought hard all week to reach Day 6 on championship Saturday.  We came into the 56 team field with the 5th best USSSA Power Ranking of all the teams, so we felt pretty good about that heading in.  We battled hard all week and didn't lose a game in this double-elimination tournament until very late in the tournament on the night of Day 5, in which we came up short by 1 run late in the game to the eventual World Series Champions.  On Day 6 of championship Saturday, we won our first game and then finished 1 game short of reaching the Final Four.  After all the dust settled, we came out finishing 5th place overall; and although we didn't come home with the title, we did finish the tournament with the #1 Power Ranking out of all the teams!!   

Results:  

Day 1 (Opening Ceremonies)

Day 2 (Pool Play): Tied the Pink Panthers from Salina, KS (8-8), then beat the Northern Illinois Thunder Silver from Sugar Grove, IL (9-2)

Day 3 (Pool Play): Beat the highly-ranked Smithville Sting of Smithville, MO (6-4) to earn the #1 seed in our pool

Day 4 (Bracket Play): Started off with a bye, then beat the Kansas Titans from Olathe, KS (9-1)

Day 5 (Bracket Play): Beat the Stingrays from Palatine, IL (11-2) to reach the Elite 8 in the tourney, then lost our first game of the tourney to the eventual champions - Topeka Nemesis of Topeka, KS (3-4), then finished the night by beating the Mud Turtles of Baxter Springs, KS in another tight game (7-6)

Day 6 (Bracket Play): Beat the Oklahoma Nemesis of Tulsa, OK (5-2), then lost our final game to the X-Factor 99s of Ottawa, KS (5-8)

As a coach/manager/dad of these wonderful young ladies, I couldn't be more proud of what we've built together.  The successes these girls have accomplished over these past 4 years have not come easy, it took a group of athletes and families to come together in the belief that success in this game can only be realized by surrounding each other with others that were willing to put in the time and dedication.  Countless year-round practices, hard work, team chemistry, and the act of putting others ahead of ourselves is how success has been accomplished here.  We are all so proud of these girls and families.  Awesome season ladies!! More success to come...