Broken Arrow- The Tulsa Lightning placed third in the Broken Arrow Girls Softball League 16&U Tournament Championship last weekend finishing the tournament tough after competing in seven games between Saturday and Sunday.  The team was an offensive powerhouse throughout the tournament outscoring their opponents by a combined score of 23 –to- 14.  The tournament included thirteen 16 and under teams from throughout Oklahoma along with one team from Wichita, Kansas. 

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 Rick Adams, Mark Graham and Billy Allen 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 shorthanded on their starting roster, with their starting second baseman Alysha Adams of Tulsa out with an injured Quad and leadoff batter Amy Graham of Hominy playing in the Jenks Basketball Camp throughout Saturday morning.  However, the team was able to welcome back Katie Proffitt and Bree Winters for the tournament after a brief departure from the team.  Both girls picked up right where they left off and were a HUGE asset contributing throughout the entire weekend both offensively and defensively.  Both girls seemed to bring some additional needed spark and excitement to the team.  The team played tough, but wound up loosing back-to-back games in the entry “Pool Play” on Saturday Morning against the Oklahoma Classics 4-0 and the Wichita Twisters 2-1.  This placed the team in a bad predicament having to start off bracket play from last place.  Fortunately, Amy Graham was able to show up before the first tournament game to help out.

So the girls started out Tournament Play against the Oklahoma Bratz on Saturday afternoon.  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.  Inevitably the elder more experienced Tulsa Lightning prevailed in a defensive battle winning by a final score of 4 - 3. 

Next up for the Lightning girls was facing the Oklahoma Integrity.  The OK Integrity is a Class Act Broken Arrow based team of girls from throughout the Tulsa area.  The Lightning girls played hard from the very beginning and got their bats going strong early winning by a final score of 7 – 0.

This would force a rematch with the Oklahoma Classics, who had shut out the Tulsa Lightning earlier in the day in Pool Play, but had suffered a Perfect Game No Hitter to the Lightning the previous week in Claremore.   These two teams have had an extended history of playing some memorable ball games against each other over the past few years.  The Lightning girls stepped up with an offensive explosion and a defensive shut down, shutting out the Classics by a final score of 8 – 0.  This advanced the Lightning in the winners bracket as one of only two undefeated teams providing a guaranteed third place finish. 

On Sunday, the team would start out against the only other undefeated team, the tough Lady Eagles from Red Oak, OK.  The Lady Eagles were known as a well-coached team that never gave up ‘till the very end.  The Lightning girls battled hard throughout the entire game and if not for a few hard hit balls getting through up the middle, would have had a chance to turn the game around.  The Lady Eagles stood tall and played tough advancing to the Tournament Championship with a 4-1 victory.

This left the Lightning girls with another rematch against the Twisters from Wichita, KS for one final chance to advance to the championship game.  The Twisters brought a tough team into the Tournament looking to take a trophy back to Kansas and were going to give it all they had.  The Lightning girls battled tough in what turned out to be one of the best games of the entire tournament weekend.  It was a back-and-forth battle between the two teams to the very end.  After an hour and twenty minutes the teams finished the game in a 4-4 tie sending the game into an international tiebreaker.  In ASA (American Softball Association) Rules, when the score is tied at the end of regulation play the game goes into an International Tiebreaker meaning that each team will start off their half of an inning with a runner already on second base and will play the full inning.  The Lightning was the Home Team, which meant the Twisters would start off first.  The Twisters got two additional runners on base and were able to pick up two runs on a missed ball at home plate and an additional run on a deep hit ball.  This left the Lightning facing a 7-4 deficit in the bottom of the inning.  The girls got some momentum going scoring one quick run, but came up short in the 5-7 loss.  It was a great game and the coaches and fans were proud of both teams’ efforts.  This was by definition exactly what a Semi-Final, Championship game should be.  Congratulations and thank you to the Tulsa Lightning on their third place finish, the Runner-Up Wichita Twisters and the Champion Red Oak Lady Eagles along with all the other teams, coaches, fans, parents and tournament officials for another fantastic softball weekend in Broken Arrow.

Lightning’s Road to Victory:

Tournament Games (Saturday)

1.      Defeated     OK Bratz                  4-3

2.      Defeated     OK Integrity              7-0

3.      Defeated     OK Classics            8-0

Tournament Games (Sunday)

4.      Lost to Red Oak Lady Eagles     0-4

5.     Lost to     Wichita Twisters          5-7