Claremore- The Tulsa Lightning (a 16 and Under Competitive Softball Team) placed fourth in the Claremore Open 16&U Tournament Championship last weekend finishing the tournament undefeated with six wins and only two losses between Saturday and Sunday.  The team was a defensive powerhouse throughout the tournament only allowing 5 total earned runs in their eight games and also put on an offensive explosion scoring an impressive 25 runs.  The tournament included twelve 16 and under teams from throughout Oklahoma and the fans were amazing. 

The Tulsa Lightning is a Competitive Team based in Tulsa, 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 comprised of Athletes from throughout Northeastern Oklahoma including Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Glenpool, Sand Springs, Dewey, Miami and Hominy. 

Head Coach Rick Adams was excited to see his team coming together so strongly stating “these girls are playing their hearts out, improving every week and are one step away from being fully prepared for Nationals (AFA National Tournament in Rockford, IL) next month.”  The team had already qualified for Nationals by winning the Championship in the Owasso AFA Qualifier Tournament in April of this year.

The Lightning started off the weekend going undefeated in the entry “Pool Play” on Saturday Morning winning three consecutive, back-to-back, games against the Oklahoma Babes 3-1, the Oklahoma Classics 2-0 and the Oklahoma Inferno 1-0.  Amy Graham of Hominy and Sydney Bell of Dewey combined to pitch a Perfect-Game No Hitter in the win against the Oklahoma Classics.  Amy pitched the first three innings striking out five and allowing no one to reach base.  Then in the bottom of the third, while sliding into third Amy ripped a large chunk of skin off her arm forcing her to leave the game for the rest of the inning to get first aide.  Sydney Bell came in to relief pitch the fourth inning.  She backed up Amy’s performance perfectly throwing two strikeouts and allowed no one to reach first.  This earned Amy the win and Sydney the save, giving them a combined perfect game.  This should have earned them a first round bye in the tournament bracket, as they would have been ceded number one, which would have given the team a few hours before their first Tournament game.  However, the Tournament Bracket had already been stacked in the Home Town’s favor forcing all the Top Teams to play first.

So the girls started out Tournament Play against the Rock N’ Fire on Saturday afternoon.  The team started off playing hard and held a 3 to 1 lead going into the bottom of the fifth inning, when a few costly errors allowed the Rock N’ Fire to score three runs giving them a 4-to-3 upset win.   This forced the Lightning into the losers bracket meaning that one more loss would end the tournament for them.  In order to win the Championship the Lightning would have to win seven consecutive games in a little over 24 hours.

First up they had to face the OK Diamond Devils and won a strong defensive battle 4-0.  Next, they beat the Edge 8-1 on Amy Graham’s game clinching, three-run triple with two outs in the bottom of the 5^th inning. On Sunday morning the Lightning started off with a rematch against the Rock N Fire.   The team won an amazing defensive game by a final score of 1-0. This left them facing the strong OK Eagles for fourth place.  Both teams started off impressively allowing no hits in the first three innings.  In the top of the fourth Lightning gave up four runs to the Eagles for a 4-0 score.  In the bottom of the sixth and final inning the Lightning rallied to get the bases loaded and drove in two runs.  They never gave up in the 4-2 loss leaving them in fourth place.

The hitting power trio including Alyshia Adams of Tulsa Memorial, Erin Monday of Glenpool, and Amy Graham of Hominy led the team’s powerful offensive display bashing the ball all weekend.  Their offensive explosion was backed up by the strong pitching performances of Veronica Arizpe of Miami, Sydney Bell of Dewey and Amy Graham along with the strong defensive stance of the entire team.   Take away a few errors and the team had a great chance at winning the championship.

Hominy’s Amy Graham finished out the weekend batting .623 going 10-for-16 with 4 singles, 3 doubles, 2 triples, 1 homer, 4 walks, scoring 8 runs, driving in 6 RBIs, and stealing 10 Stolen Bases.  As usual she did not strike out one time, as she has only been struck out one time all season.  Amy pitched 10 total innings, striking out 10, walking only two and giving up only 3 earned runs.

Lightning’s Road to Victory:

Pool Games (Saturday)

1.      Defeated OK Babes               3-1

2.      Defeated OK Classics           2-0

3.      Defeated OK Inferno              1-0

Tournament Games (Saturday)

4.      Lost to     Rock N’ Fire            3-4

5.      Defeated Diamond Devils      7-0

6.      Defeated OK Edge                 8-0

Tournament Games (Sunday)

7.      Defeated Rock N Fire            1-0

8.     Lost to     OK Eagles              2-4