USA/ASA 16-Under "A" 2009 National Championship

Carolina Cardinals play at 8pm tonight vs CA American Athletics who were also 2nd place in their pool. Weather isnt cooperating as it has rained all afternoon but since there is no red clay up there they have played through it so far.

 

Game moved to 10:00 pm

 

After a first round bye the Carolina Cardinals finally played their 2nd round game at Noon today

Carolina Cardinals 8
CA American Athletics 0
Final

Chelsea White (2011 E. Rowan) threw a complete game and went 2-3; Erin Kayton(2011 Marvin Ridge) was 2-4 with a dbl and Stephanie Wood(2011 Ardrey Kell) 2-3.

Next game Friday at Noon vs Indiana Magic Gold. Very similar team so should be a good game.

 

Sounds like some of those California teams must be too far from home.

 

14U?

Has anyone heard from the 14U tournament? Weren't the Diamond Thunder supposed to be going? Any updates?

By the way....go BLUES (18U)....go CARDS (16U)!!!
Keep it up!

 

Thunder lost their pool games and first bracket game

 

What a day! Its not often you start playing on Fri and dont stop until its Sat!The Carolina Cardinls began play at Noon cst Fri and finished at 1:25am cst on Saturday

Game 1
Carolina Cardinals 2
Indiana Magic Gold 3

Tough tough losss. Cards down 1-0 heading to bottom of 6 and score 2 on a huge hit by Elena Covert(2012 Providence) and a perfect squeeze bunt by Dani Monroe(2011 Char Catholic) to flop the game on the Magic only to see their leadoff hitter rip a double coupled with 2 dink hits put them back on top 3-2. Caitlin Kurtz(2011 Marvin Ridge) threw 5 great innings, but the relevers couldnt hold the lead.

Game 2
Carolina Cardinals 7
TX Hitaway Thompson 3

Jessica Scott(2011 Franklin) threw well and shut this team down til a couple of late runs in the 7th. Ashley Christy(2011 Marvin Ridge) goes yard in this game!

Game 3
Carolina Cardinals 3
Washington Sidewinders 2

Ashley Christy goes yard again putting ths Cardinals up 2-0 in the 3rd and Emily Scott(2012 Myers Park) knocks in winning run late in the game. Chelsea White(2011 E. Rowan) goes the distance in the circle for the win.

Game 4
Carolina Cardinals 6
CA Victory USA 9

The Victory jumped on the Cardinals for 3 in the top of the first and it was an uphill battle from the start. Down 9-0 the girls rallied for 2 in the 4th and 4 in the 5th but time expired after the 6th inn and the tournament ended for the Cardinals at 1:25 am cst. The Victory was a team we handled in CO 3-1 but it wasnt to be.

Good job girls as you accomplished a lot this summer as a first year 16u team and will only have 1 player age out. The future is bright and back to back 16u ASA State Championships would be awesome!

 

thoughts

I can see where central D is coming from. The expense for a family to travel for a week to one of these tournaments can more than surpass what one of these girls MAY receive in one year's worth of scholarship money. Would it be a fun family trip? No doubt! If it's affordable, then definitely go for the experience and the memories. But, for the average family, this cost is prohibitive and it's a shame that these are the tournaments that get a kid the big time exposure. It just seems ridiculous that a girl from NC, that wants to play college ball in, or near, NC has to go to South Dakota to get recruited.

I've said it on this site before, there needs to be some exclusive, top level team tournaments here. Tournaments that that are made up of teams that have legitimate college prospect talent on their rosters. If that could be done, the college recruiters would be there. This would have to be done by someone (Coach Dobbins???) who's main interest is getting players exposure and high level competition. Maybe if something like this could be established then some of those teams from out west could worry about the expense of traveling to the Carolinas!

I do have a question about how only one team from NC "qualified" to go to SD when the tournament has 164 teams playing. There is obviously more than one team per state!

Sorry about the rambling on... Saturday morning with a wandering mind!

 

Why is it any different than baseball teams playing in AAU Natl chmp at 13/14, then PG events in E Cobb and Jupiter,Fl at showcase age? Every baseball travel team worth their weight wants to play in those so why should girls who want to play in college be different?????

NC only receives 1 spot because the number of spots a state gets is determined by how many teams are registered to play ASA in that state. In NC we only meet the threshold for 1 spot. Nationally ASA is THE top level of fastpitch softball and states where the best sofball is played like CA, TX, etc obviously receive many more spots because it is the dominant sanctioning body.

As regards cost, you can add up the cost of what the spend on 1 year of travel ball is and it pales in comparison to what the cost of a college education is these days. Pick a college any college and it will be a minimum of $15k a year all in. Not a well thought out comment on your part and those who always seem to raise that point whether its baseball or softball.

 

Not siding one way or the other but I see your point about the number of teams.

Not a math wiz but:
164 teams, say 12 player per team, that's roughly 2000 players (1,968). So our 12 are up against 2000.

Now consider the Cardinals Classic in Raleigh.
70 teams, 840 players.

There were a lot of coaches at the Cardinals tournament. Especially NC coaches. Back in the day, the Cardinals Raleigh tournament was THE tournament around here.

If the Cardinals Classic were to return to a true 7-inning tournament format there probably would be even more coaches. And fewer teams competing (that's a good thing) at a higher level. Either that (less teams) or add a day or two to the tournament for more teams. And trim the bottom teams each year to build a stronger tournament. Probably would only have to do that once. Once the word got out about the level of competition it would be full of strong teams anyway.