USA Softball

OKLAHOMA CITY --- Despite the on-going rain at the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of America Hall of Fame Complex, the 2012 ASA Women’s Open Slow Pitch National championship trophy landed in the hands of the Derby Girls (Seattle, Wash.) Saturday evening.  The Derby Girls defeated Armed Forces (Washington, D.C.) 16-3 in the Championship Game to capture the Women’s Open title.  Ending the day with a flawless 3-0 record and outscoring its opponents 49-13, the Derby Girls was led by tournament All American and Batting Champion Christian Dowling.  The infielder was intentionally walked 10 times with five runs scored, one home run and three RBI.

The All Armed Forces team tied up the game in the second inning before the Derby Girls pulled ahead for the eventual win.  They pushed across eight runs in the bottom of the third inning and then an additional five runs in the bottom of the fourth to claim the run-rule victory. 

The All Armed Forces Women’s team started strong early Saturday morning putting up 21 runs to TALAPID (Forman, Ark.) 3 in the first game of the day.  The Red, White and Blue then matched up with Derby Girls who defeated Ideal Hitters/Denison Drywall (Des Moines, Iowa) 21-3 in their first game of the day.  A tight contest that was knotted up at four-all in the third inning, Derby Girls added seven runs in the top of the fifth for the eventual 12-7 victory. Tournament MVP Kat Sherer led all hitters in the game going a perfect 4-for-4 with one RBI.

TALAPID notched a morning victory with a 15-13 win over Whoosh (Choctaw, Okla.).  Whoosh was then eliminated from the tournament after suffering a heart-breaking 16-15 loss to Ideal Hitters/Denison Drywall.  Ideal Hitters/Denison Drywall would then eliminated TALAPID from the tournament before facing elimination themselves at the hands of the Armed Forces in the third place game.

The Armed Forces took an early 4-0 lead before eventually defeating Idea 18-6.  Ideal Hitters finished third in the tournament with a 2-2 record followed by TALAPID at fourth and Whoosh at fifth.