Tulsa- The Tulsa Lightning won the Silver Bracket Championship in the TGSF (Tulsa Girls Softball Federation) 16 and Under Summer Festival last weekend finishing the tournament tough with four consecutive wins after losing their first game 1-0.  The team was an offensive powerhouse throughout the entire day outscoring their opponents by a combined score of 22 –to- 3 and showcased a defensive shutdown by not allowing any team to score more than 1 run against them.  The tournament included sixteen teams from throughout northeastern Oklahoma. 

The Tulsa Lightning is a 16 and under Class A Competitive Softball Team based in Tulsa, OK, which has been an organized team now since 1998 and has an extremely successful past including winning the 2003 NASI National Championship. The team is coached by Head Coach and Manager Rick Adams of Tulsa along with Assistant Coaches Mark Graham of Hominy, Billy Allen of Miami and Nathan Proffitt of Tulsa and is comprised of Top Amateur female Athletes from throughout Northeastern Oklahoma including Broken Arrow, Tulsa, Dewey, Glenpool, Hominy, Miami and Sand Springs. 

The Lightning started off the weekend against the Oklahoma Bratz on Saturday morning.  The Bratz are one of the hottest up-and-coming 14U A teams in the State, who are based in Tulsa, and were playing up in the 16U Tournament.  They have won first place in several tournaments this year including the PFX Tour Pro-Am Slam 14U, the TGSF 16U in April and the Broken Arrow Easter Bunny Classic.  Both teams started off playing hard and never gave up.  The Lightning gave up a few errors and never really got their bats going only hitting five singles and never getting anyone into scoring position.  Amy Graham of Hominy was the MVP of the game going 3-for-3 with 3 singles.  They just never could get her in scoring position.  The Bratz prevailed in the end by a final score of 1-0. 

Next up for the Lightning girls was facing the Oklahoma Babes.  The OK Babes is a Class Act Claremore based team of girls from throughout the surrounding area.  The Lightning girls played hard from the very beginning and got their bats going strong early and loaded the bases with two outs, in the bottom of the first inning.  This brought up Sydney Bell of Dewey who hit a 1-1 fastball deep for a stand-up double and clearing the bases driving in three runs.  That was all the Lightning girls needed and they wound up winning by a final score of 3 – 0.  Veronica Arizpe of Miami pitched the entire game giving up only three hits in a stellar performance and shutting out the Babes.  Not one of the Babes base runners even made it passed second base.

This would force a match-up with OK Pressure Softball, which was a team of girls from the Preston and Beggs area.   The Lightning girls stepped up by scoring three runs in the third inning and Amy Graham pitched another great complete game allowing only three hits and one run. Veronica Arizpe was the offensive MVP going 3-for-3 and driving in two RBIs.  This advanced the Lightning into the Silver Bracket. 

Next up, the team would face No Excuses of Perkins OKLA.  Once again the girls put on an offensive explosion with five different girls scoring at least one run.  Graham & Arizpe were the combined offensive MVPS with Graham going 2-for-4, driving in 2 RBIS and scoring another and Veronica went 2-for-4, driving in one run and scoring another.  Sydney Bell pitched a nice performance giving up only three hits and striking out an impressive seven in the 7-0 shutout.

This left the Lightning girls with Championship match-up with the OK Bandits.  The girls once again got their bats going early scoring two runs in the first followed up with four runs in the second including an inside the park, two-run home run by Amy Graham.  The defense shut down the Bandits only allowing one run on an error.  Graham pitched a No Hitter through the first two innings and Veronica Arizpe came in and relieved the last two innings picking up the save in a final score of 9-1.

This gave the Tulsa Lightning their second Championship Trophy for the season and increased their overall record to 30 & 21, a .588 winning percentage.  Graham led the team in offense going 11-for-16 with a .687 batting average and a phenomenal slugging percentage of 1.062.  She also led the team by scoring 4 runs and driving in 5 RBIs.  Veronica Arizpe, Sydney Bell and Graham combined pitching for an impressive 0.40 ERA for the overall festival.