Lawrence teams bring home hardware

Local teams place in all but one age division at national qualifier

Home-field advantage worked in favor of the nine Lawrence softball teams competing in the American Fastpitch Assn. national qualifying tournament, the Wham Bam Slam, last weekend at Clinton Lake Sports Complex.

A team from Lawrence took home a trophy in every division except for the 12-U age group. Phenix-Rusk, Phenix-Fyler and the Hummers all took first in pool play. Phenix-Rusk took it one step further and won the 14-U age division, blazing through the winners’ bracket, including a win over Phenix-Finucane.

“It’s a very competitive tournament,” said Kristy Asher, coach of the 12-U Phenix team. “It’s a good warm up for Nationals. There are a lot of good teams out here.”

With three Lawrence teams in both the 14-U and 18-U age divisions, intra-city match-ups were difficult to avoid. Phenix-Tanner won a bout with Phenix-Riling before later losing to the Hummers in the following game. The Hummers defeated Phenix-Tanner in a losers’ bracket game.

The Hugoton Heat delivered two losses to the Hummers in 18-U bracket play, but that didn’t stop the Hummers from taking third place.

As the only Lawrence team in the 16-U division, Phenix-Fyler avoiding facing fellow Phenix teams unlike the area squads in the 14-U and 18-U divisions.

The Phenix-Fyler team took second in the 16-U age division, losing to the KC Impact in the championship game.

Though most of the local teams had success at the tournament this weekend, even the teams that would have liked to have done better found the national qualifying tournament to be a positive learning experience. The teams also saw other benefits from the proximity of the tournament.

“It’s kind of nice to play here and that the national tournament is here because it so close to home,” Hummers coach Brian Wagner said. “You don’t have to travel or wake up as early.”

The Lawrence teams that qualified for the AFA National B Tournament will participate in it July 18 to 25 at CLSC.