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Daily Camera

Bandits bop Georgia for tourney title
Olson delivers title game win
By Dan Fatigato, For the Camera
Monday, July 2, 2007

Apparently size doesn't matter.Not when it can be made up for with speed and nasty pitching, that is.

The Beverly (Ill.) Bandits Gold were dwarfed physically by the Georgia Elite, but pitcher Sara Olson baffled big hitters all day en route to a 7-1 mercy-rule victory in the 18-U championship that completed an unbeaten run for the Bandits at the Independence Day Softball Tournament.

Bandits coach Bill Conroy has two aces on his staff, Olson and the harder-throwing Lauren Delaney, but his decision to go with the former was an easy one and it paid off. Olson scattered four hits over five innings while striking out five Elite batters with her deadly changeup.

"I went with the pitcher that throws a lot of changeups because most of your big teams aren't real good on the finesse side," Conroy said. "They can hit the big ball but they're off on their front foot on the changeups.

"Sara throws hard enough, but her change is her bread-and-butter."

As good as Olson was, it looked like the game belonged to Elite pitcher Kristin Graham early on. Graham struck out the side in the first inning and tallied four punchouts through two. But with a 1-0 lead in the third inning, the fireballer lost her control.

Graham walked three batters, threw a wild pitch that brought in the Bandits' first run and was eventually pulled with the bases loaded. Megan Lilley then stepped up and smacked a two-run double off reliever Monica Perry, opening the door to a five run inning.

"The first couple innings we were dragging a little bit until (Graham) got a little wild," Conroy said. "I figured our small ball, our speed would end up catching up to them sooner or later and it did."

If the Bandits were a little weary early on, it was not without reason. Their first game of the day began at 8:30 a.m. — a 15-2 win over the North Carolina Cardinals — and it took 10 innings to escape with a 5-2 win over the Texas Eclipse just to reach the title game.

But the free passes allowed by Graham served as fuel for the Bandits, and their bats woke up against Perry, whom Conroy acknowledged was "more hittable."

"We knew from the beginning that it was going to be a long day and there were going to be the best of the best teams out here," Olson said. "We were ready for it."

Though she didn't allow an Elite hitter to reach second base after the first inning, Olson was quick to deflect the credit.

"I feel (catcher) Ashley (Conrad) called a great game behind the plate like she always does," Olson said. "She kept them off balance herself; she was the brains of the whole thing."

Conroy put his brains to use as well in the fifth, devising a trick play to get the last run his team needed for the mercy rule to come into effect. With Lilley on second and running on the pitch, Conroy had batter Shannon Keefe fake a bunt so that the third baseman would charge.

Graham had been moved to shortstop and would have to cover third base.

"(Graham) looked like a great player, but she wasn't the fastest so I thought we could do that and the ball would go into left field," Conroy said.

Sure enough, catcher Ashley Razey's throw beat Graham to the bag and ended up in the outfield, allowing Lilley to stroll in for a run.

Olson then came out and shut the door on the Elite one last time, making champions of the overworked Bandits in a much-needed shortened game.

Notable

After a 5-0-1 run in pool play last week, the Washington Glacier Gold toppled the Tennessee Magic in the semifinals of the 18-U Louisville bracket and went on to beat the Southern Cal Xplosion in the championship. Louisville is the smaller of the two 18-U brackets, consisting of four pools of teams.

Pool play took place at the Louisville Sports Complex, rather than the Stazio Ballfields, where the Boulder bracket teams played.

In the 16-U tournament, the Orange County (Calif.) Batbusters defeated the Illinois Southern Force to claim the title. The Batbusters finished pool play with a perfect 6-0 record.

Daily Camera

O.C. Batbusters set standard: But defending national champs lose opener
By Ryan Thorburn (Contact)
Thursday, June 28, 2007

There are 144 teams representing 30 states in the Louisville Slugger Independence Day Softball Tournament.

But it is the Orange County Batbusters — coached by Gary Haning — that usually stand out in the competitive world of girls softball.

Since 1983, the Batbusters have won eight 18U national championships, including last year. Haning has coached eight Olympians and more than 40 U.S. National Team players in his quarter-century on the bench.

"Gary's teams are the favorites in every tournament they play in," Independence Tournament director and Colorado Stars coach Dan Burns said on Wednesday as the action got under way in Boulder, Longmont and Louisville.

Haning didn't agree after watching the Batbusters lose 9-4 to the Arizona Hotshots Gold in their first pool playgame. The defending national champions — who have won four of the last nine Independence Day Tournaments — have six players who are currently playing with the U.S. Junior National team in Holland and another player who is attending summer school and also did not make the trip.

"It's wide open whether we're young or not," said Haning, whose team rebounded with a victory over the L.A. Voodoo in its second game on Wednesday night at the East Mapleton Fields. "There are many good teams here and it's always a very competitive tournament. It would be nearly impossible to say who would win."

The California Corona Angels are the defending champions in the 80-team 18U tournament being played in Boulder, which welcomes back the top 16 teams from last year's bracket.

"We've been coming here from way before the last 10 years," Haning said. "The tournament is nice and we love the city. We have restaurants here that we like, and it's a very nice place and it's great for college recruiting. Yeah, it's a favorite tournament for us every year."

The Batbusters, when the entire roster gets back together, expect to have a better team this year than in 2006.

"It should be," Haning said. "Pretty much the same team with a year's experience."

Which is why many of the roughly 350 college coaches and scouts in attendance this week will be checking out the freshmen and sophomore players who are getting a chance to step between the lines and show off their skills in place of their missing Batbusters teammates.

"Every girl who has ever played on this team has gotten a college scholarship," Haning said. "Every one."

Which is why the Orange County Batbusters are usually picked to finish first.

Colorado Stars-Burns

The Colorado Stars-Burns are still looking for their first run in 18U pool play at the Stazio Fields after falling 2-0 to the Florida Gators and 7-0 to the Texas Eclipse on Wednesday.

Kelsey O'Brien pitched pretty well for the Stars in the opener, which ended up being the highlight of their five-hit, no-run day.

"For us, of course, the problem was the lack of hitting," Burns said. "We had opportunities to score and just didn't hit."

Things won't get any easier today with pool-play games against powerhouse teams from California and New York.

"These are all good teams in our pool. They're some of the top teams in the country," Burns said. "That's who we want to play. But when you don't play well you can get embarrassed."

Burns' stars have already qualified for the Gold Nationals.

Meanwhile, the Colorado Comets enjoyed some solid pitching from starters Libby Balogh and Nikki Haberkorn and split their first two pool-play games in the U18 tournament in Louisville, losing 2-1 to the California Third Degree Gold and getting a 5-2 win over the California Lady Sharks Gold.

"We had a really good day," Comets coach Dave Pineda said. "Great pitching and great defense. ... We have been playing very well for the last few weeks and we want to keep it up in this tournament."

In Longmont at the U16 tournament, the Colorado Comets opened with a 3-2 victory over Florida Team Florida.

Daily Camera

Sluggers take bases on Boulder fields
Nation's best up to bat in holiday weekend tourney
By Christine Reid (Contact)
Thursday, June 28, 2007

Yellow balls soared through the Boulder air Wednesday, and runners from sea-level states gasped for breath while running the bases.

Welcome to softball in Colorado.

The national Louisville Slugger Independence Day Softball Tournament began Wednesday morning. Hundreds of fast-pitch games will be played through the weekend at the Stazio and Mapleton complexes in Boulder, as well as at fields in Louisville and Longmont, featuring some of the nation's top teams of girls ages 14 to 18.

Organizers say the tournament draws about 5,000 people to the city, and most stay at least a week.

There's not an empty hotel room anywhere near Boulder this weekend — even the $600 rooms at the St. Julien Hotel are booked. The University of Colorado helped out by opening some air-conditioned rooms at Williams Village.

The tournament that this year attracted 144 teams from both coasts and everywhere in between has become a prime scouting spot for college coaches looking to award scholarships.

"If you want your kid to be seen, this is where you've got to go," said Jane Johnson, who has two daughters playing for the Richmond (Va.) Diamonds.She's staying at a hotel in Brighton, an hour away, despite booking well in advance.

Heads up!
What: 10th annual Louisville Slugger Independence Day Softball Tournament

Where: Boulder's Stazio and Mapleton fields — Arapahoe Road and 63rd Street, and Mapleton Avenue and 29th Street; Louisville's Sports Complex, 1200 Courtesy Drive; Longmont's Garden Acres Complex, 1800 Spencer St.

When: All day today through Saturday. Championship games noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at Stazio

Cost: $25 for an all-tournament pass, or $10 a day. Children 12 and younger get in free.

More info: bouldersoftball.org
"There's a lot of money coming in around here," Johnson said.

The tournament is the earliest chance for college scouts to get a sneak peek at upcoming talent, organizers say. Softball players and their families also seize the opportunity to see the sights in the Rocky Mountains while playing a little ball.

Philadelphia's Blazing Angels players Alison Crawford and Jillian Magee said their team looks forward to the trip every year.

"It's like a vacation," said Magee, 17. She and her teammates love the Pearl Street Mall, she said, and have gone horseback riding in the past. This year, they hope to go white-water rafting — a cool consolation prize if they don't make it to Sunday's finals.

As for the altitude for visiting players, it's both a challenge and a plus, players say. "Luckily, we don't have to run very much," said Kaitlin Johnson, 15, of the Richmond Diamonds.

"The balls do go a lot farther," teammate Katherine Kouri, 16, chimed in.

Daily Camera

Independence Day tourney crowd to descend on county
By Joshua Lindenstein (Contact)
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Whether Dan Burns is ready or not, the Louisville Slugger Independence Day Softball Tournament gets going at 8 a.m. Wednesday in Boulder, Louisville and Longmont.

For Burns, the tournament director for the last three years, the past few days have been full of preparing the fields, coordinating volunteer labor, distributing souvenirs, program books and T-shirts, and getting two storage bins full of "stuff" out to the fields. That's not even to mention his biggest time consumer lately — responding to the endless onslaught of e-mails from teams and college coaches confirming their attendance and arrival times and asking questions about everything from where to park an RV to the location of the Laundromat nearest to their hotels. Oh yeah, and he has a team of his own to get ready.

"It just seems to roll around too soon for me," Burns said Monday. "I need an extra day or two sometimes."

Despite the whirlwind build-up, the tournament's reputationsuggests Burns will be ready.

For the second year in a row, 144 teams — from 30 states — and 350 or so college coaches will descend upon Boulder County for the prestigious five-day tournament. Eighty teams will play in the 18-under main draw at Stazio Fields and the East Mapleton Complex. In a new wrinkle added to the tournament last year, 32 other 18-under teams will play in a separate tournament in Louisville, with the top six teams earning bids into the Boulder tournament next season. The other 32 teams will play in the 16-under tournament in Longmont.

As usual, there are only a handful of new teams in the Boulder draw as most teams don't give up their spot once they're in. The California Corona Angels return to defend their title along with all of the top 16 teams from last year's tournament. Gary Haning's California Batbusters, the 2006 ASA Gold national champions, are also back.

"Every tournament he plays in, they're the favorites to win it I think," Burns said of Haning, whose teams have won the Louisville Slugger four times in the past nine years.

Ten of the top 12 teams from last year's Gold Nationals will be in town along with the 18A national champs and 16-under national champs. While traditional powers like the Batbusters, Virginia Shamrocks and California Cruisers will be present, so too will a few new contenders, including the Arizona Desert Thunder, a team that's moved up from the 16-under ranks this summer. Six Colorado teams will play in the three different brackets.

"I think overall the field is stronger," Burns said.

Another new feature of the tournament is tonight's all-star showcase games.

The Tuesday night before the tournament begins has traditionally been the night of a dinner at Stazio Fields for all players, coaches and parents. Last year, the tournament added an exhibition game between the Chicago Bandits professional team and the Chinese Taipei national team. While that game was a success, such an event couldn't be arranged this summer.

"We investigated finding another game like that but we had trouble finding a suitable opponent (to play the Bandits) that would be intriguing," Burns said.

The all-star games will be played instead at 7 tonight, with some of the best players who have yet to commit to college offers getting the chance to participate in the games. There will be one game each for 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 graduates. Each team in the tournament got to nominate one player in each age group to play in the games.

By the time those games begin, most of Burns' preparation will be complete, and he'll be able to enjoy the week.

"It's hectic, no question about it, but I know that going in and I don't get stressed very much," Burns said.