Softball: Faster to First tournament got mostly good grades

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It certainly would have been a nice feather in the cap of Southern California if one of its local teams had won the inaugural Nike Faster to First softball tournament. SoCal has long been the preeminent hotbed of softball talent in the nation.

But, to be fair, I’m cool with Pembroke Pines (Fla.) winning the tournament Saturday with a 1-0 victory over Sacramento Sheldon. On a national scale, the Florida victory gave Anaheim Canyon co-coach Lance Eddy’s baby national credibility.

It was a wonderful, self-contained tournament without traveling to the middle of nowhere. The wind was wretched for some of Friday and all of Saturday. And it was cold. Not exactly Chamber of Commerce weather at the Huntington Beach Sports Complex. But still ...

‘I like the tournament, I like the competition,’ said Norco Coach Rick Robinson, whose team went to the Tournament of Champions in Bullhead City, Ariz., a week ago. ‘There’s quality teams from all over. It’s a nice change from Arizona. Last year we went to Arizona and played five California teams. I liked the way this was run, there were some other activities, the SPARQ testing, it made it more of a festival.’

Norco went 4-1, its only loss to runner-up Sheldon. The coach of Norco’s Mountain View League rival, Corona Santiago’s John Perez, said the tournament was ‘too heavy duty,’ and would like to see a 16-team tournament, ‘but get the best 16,’ with single games Thursday and Friday, and two on Saturday. Fourteen teams were ranked among the top 50 nationally.

Perez’s complaint was that there was not enough time to recharge between games. When his team played Ayala, it was his squad’s third game in 30 hours, whereas Ayala was playing its second. Santiago, ranked No. 2 in the nation, was beaten, 3-1.

‘A tournament like this, you need two pitchers,’ said Perez, though historically, he could have had a dozen pitchers and would have still thrown Kamerin May for all five games. May, hit on the base of the glove hand in the first game while batting, admitted that by the time she faced Valencia on Saturday in the tournament she was pretty tired. ‘It’s a tough tournament, but I’m glad we’re here,’ she said before shutting out the Vikings, 3-0, on a three-hitter with nine strikeouts.

Eddy said the tournament is unlikely to get smaller. It included 26 teams this year. It was supposed to be 24, but some schools backed out at the last minute. Apparently, teams in the Southern Section sign contracts but they do not necessarily do that elsewhere. That left Eddy scrambling for replacements, and that’s how Ayala, Long Beach Wilson and Norwalk got into the field making it an oddball number.

Ayala was the buzz of the tournament after beating Kennedy and Santiago, which were ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the nation.

‘With the teams that want to come back, I think we’re going to grow,’ Eddy said. ‘The Arizona teams weren’t real happy because they all lost and had to play each other, but what are you going to do? They were nationally rated and they lost and ended up playing each other in the losers bracket. Other than that, I think everyone was pretty happy.’
-- Martin Henderson
-- Image from www.brake.org.uk