YOUNGSVILLE -- The Diamond Divas, a Ville Platte based travel softball team, have taken home their first tournament title of the spring/summer season with a first place finish at Fastpitch America Softball Association (FASA) event held here last weekend.
The Divas, a 12U team, are comprised of almost all 11 year old players and have been competing since the fall. This particular tournament marks the seventh that the team has participated in since April 14.
The Divas will complete the season with one last tournament appearance next week, when they will travel to Sulphur to compete in the Jennie Finch World Series.
The tournament is scheduled to begin on Wednesday. The first three days are pool play games, and bracket play will be a single elimination bracket that starts on Friday and ends on Saturday.
This season was the first for the Divas to participate in the 12U age group. So, moving up meant getting used to a number of changes.
According to head coach Todd Ardoin, making those changes were not as hard as was first thought.
“When we first starting competing in this age group in the fall, we did not know what to expect, especially with our pitchers” stated Ardoin. “They had to adjust to a 12 inch ball as opposed to an 11 inch ball, and they had to start throwing from 40 feet instead of 35 feet. But, I think that they have adjusted well.”
“Our hitting has stayed the course,” Ardoin continued. “Our season has gone better than I thought it would. We have really played some tough competition this year. Our job is to prepare them for next year and the year after that, until they reach high school. Overall, I am pleased with our progression to this point.”
Last weekend the Divas proved themselves worthy of the tournament title, going 8-1 overall. Two strong wins on Saturday in their two pool games, a 4-3 win over Cajun Express and a 6-0 blanking of Louisiana Slam, helped propel the Divas toward the championship.
Using the momentum from those two wins, the Divas took their first bracket game win in a close, 5-4, victory over LA Slam 05. They followed that with a convincing, 8-1, pounding of the Patriots in their last game on Saturday.
The only hiccup over the weekend came on Sunday morning when the Divas fell to the Maniax, 3-0, for their only loss of the entire tourney.
After that defeat, the Divas had to dig deep in their reserves, as they had to come up with four wins over the course of the next seven hours in order to hoist the championship hardware.
The Divas began their quest for the title with a 10-2 trouncing of LA Slam 05 and then proceeded to slide past the Louisiana Shockers, 7-4.
Game eight of the tournament saw the Divas blank Cajun Express, 5-0, for a chance to revenge an earlier loss to the Maniax in the title game.
In that game the Divas fell behind, 5-3, after three innings of play before outscoring the Maniax, 5-1, over the next three innings to seal the win and the championship.
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TRACEY JAGNEAUX Sports Editor