CT Bombers Black 12-U

Off to Brewster, NY for the annual Brewster Rockets’ Spring Blastoff.  This is one of our favorite tournaments.  Lots of friends, great competition and great facilities add up to tons of fun.

Up first was the Dutchess Debs.  Fresh off of winning the tournament the previous week, we knew we had our work out for ourselves. We jumped out to an early lead, 3-1, with timely hitting and aggressive base running.  But the Debs fought back by adding a run in the top of the 5^th inning.  Too close within a run, the Bomber girls answered with a run in the bottom half.  With time running out in the 6^th inning, the Debs pushed across 2 more runs to tie the game 4-4.  In our bottom half, we could not master enough offense to break the tie.

The second game of the day, we faced the scrappy Junction Girls’ team from NY.  This time we came out more aggressive and took advantage of any mistakes that was made by the opposing team.  Add that to strong pitching and a better defensive effort the game ended in a 10-2 victory.

The final game for Saturday was with the host team, Brewster Rockets.  After losing to them in the Adirondacks Winter Tournament, we were looking forward to this game. They lived up to our expectations, however, behind lock down pitching and tough defense, we prevailed 5-2.

Having gone 2-0-1 for Saturday, we seeded 2^nd which pitted us against a hungry Junction Girls that were looking for redemption from their Saturday loss to us.  Jumping out to an early 3-1 lead and gradually extending it to 6-1, the Bombers had to withstand a late Junction Girls’ rally; holding the lead and winning 6-4.

Next up was a team that we have not faced before, X-treme Chaos.  This game would not have no such drama as the previous game.  Behind a 2-hit shutout pitching with 10 strikeouts, the game was never in doubts.  The final score was 7-0 pushing us forward to the Championship Game.

The Championship Game was a rematch of the opening game of the tournament - Dutchess Debs vs. CT Bombers Black.  This time there would not be a tie. Stellar pitching and defense was the order of the day with each team scratching out an early run.  The game went into the bottom of the 6^th inning tied at 1-1.  Just then the sky threatened and a brief thunderstorm passed delaying the game for about 45 minutes.  Resuming the game with a lead-off single followed by a strong double to deep left center drove in the decisive run and powered us to a 2-1 victory AND THE TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS!!!!!!

TWO CHAMPIONS IN FOUR TOURNAMENTS – AWESOME JOB!!!!!

We traveled to Rhode Island to face a potent line-up of teams (all ready to test our early success).  The May Fly Open would soon be a true test our team’s will and resolve.  Facing the CT Renegades and the Cheshire Wildcats Red early Saturday, the games lead to 6-1 and 11-2 victories, respectively.  Neither game was particularly well played.  Our defense and offense was rescued by strong pitching.

A good test was up next in our third game.  The CT Mirage, a team that was coming off a tournament win of their own, and a team that we could consider a geographical rival, was our opponent.  The CT Mirage came out aggressive which lead to 2 early runs which proved to be just enough, winning the game 3-1.

Going 2-1 for the day lead to us being a 5^th seed which pit us against the 4^th seed, Danger White, a team with a history with the Bombers organization.  Anticipation was high as both teams knew that this was going to be a true battle between two strong softball teams.

The Danger White struck first, leading 2-0 going into the 5^th inning.  With a few well timed hits, we tied to score 2-2.  The tie was short-lived as the Danger White answered with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning.  The Bombers girls would not be denied as they answered in the next inning with a run of their own tying the game 3-3.  With time having run out we entered into the International Tie Breaker which seemed only fitting  with such a thrilling game.  With so much excitement and drama, the Bomber girls performed to perfection as they pushed across the go ahead run.  Now, having to defend the lead, the team did just that – shutting down the Danger White and winning the game 4-3 sending us into a rematch with the CT Mirage in the Semi Finals.

This time the Bombers Black came out firing on all cyclinders, jumping out to a 3-0 lead after the first inning which turned out to be more than enough to win.  With our dominating pitching and relentless offense we powered our way to a 7-1 victory to avenge our earlier lost the day before.

ANOTHER FINAL: With the experience we have gained from previous tournaments and the way we took care of business in our earlier games, confidence was high as we squared off against the RI Lightning.  Once again the offense lead the way as we jumped out to an early lead, 3-0.  With our usually strong pitching and locked-down defense, we would not  be denied in our quest for Title #3.  Another champion victory (final score 4-2) was a perfect ending to a great weekend.  WAY TO GO GIRLS!!!!!! 

Home at last!!!!!  Having experienced the thrill of winning a championship two weeks earlier, the girls came in hungry to capture our own tournament.  First up we face the Shoreline Sting, with a recipe of strong pitching and solid defense/offense, we secured a 10-0 win.  Our second game we greeted America’s Game, who had beaten us 2-1 in a scrimmage a few weeks earlier).  So, it was time to avenge our reputation.  With stellar pitching and concrete defense we controlled the game with an 8-0 shutout behind 1-hit ball.  In the third game of the day, we faced the Stratford Breakers, who were no match for our rock-hard play, giving us a dominated victory, 13-0 1-hit shutout propelling us to a #1 seed.  We outscored our opponents 31-0 and only gave up 3 hits!!! Sunday’s first game was a rematch against America’s Game.  Trailing for the first time this weekend (after one inning) the 12U CT Bombers Black never looked back and ran away with the game winning 9-1 sending us to the semi-finals.  The semi-finals matched us with a familiar foe, the CT Eliminators Red.  With strong pitching we locked them down winning 6-1 sending us to the finals for the second time in 3 tournaments.

“Remember the Titans”  In a rematch from an earlier game at the “Dome” in January, we faced off against the CT Titans Blue, a very quick and aggressive team.  The Titans jumped out to an early lead.  Behind their strong pitching, they held us at bay until late in the game.  With a rally in the 6^th inning, our team went into the 7^th inning trailing by one.  Loading the bases, with 2 outs, still trailing by one, we lined out to end the game 4-3.  That was an awesome game to be a part of and one that will surely make us stronger.  A 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place finishes for our first 3 Spring 2009 tournaments.  NOT BAD!!!

Second Place Finish