The Ohio Lasers Scarlet 07 team is seeing some early action this weekend as they head down to Chattanooga, TN for the Scenic City Summer Tournament. It's going to be a quite turnaround for them as they finish that up and then have to head out to Denver Colorado for their next tournament.
I can't believe that trip is just around the corner. It seems like it was just the other day that we were throwing around the idea of maybe heading out with them to the tournament in Colorado. We need to get through this weekend first.
This is actually a four day tournament and action starts tomorrow at noon as the Lasers Scarlet take on the Louisville Stunners National team. I've said it before, but in case you missed it, National Teams can be tough. They are often comprised of very talented ladies that compete not just regionally, but nationally in tournaments.
The team has a long break after that game and they then face the Marucci Patriots SE Gold team at 6:30 PM later that day.
Friday they have a 9 AM start against LLG VA 16U (whatever that stands for), and then a 12:00 PM game against SFL Intensity. I'm guessing maybe that is a team from South Florida. The fact that the games seem to be so spread out makes me think that this is one of those destination style tournaments.
Similar to the one we will be attending in Colorado, they don't have the ladies playing games non stop. Instead, they offer time for players to meet with private coaches for individual sessions. It comes at an extra costs, but if you can pool a couple of teams or groups together, that drives the cost down.
They also do tournaments like this to simply drive tourism to the area. Chattanooga has a really nice aquarium that @mrsbozz and I visited several years ago. If your last game of the day is at 12:00, that gives you plenty of time to go exploring and sight seeing.
Saturday they have a 12:30 PM game against Eagles TB, and then a 5:30 game versus the Mystics Fastpitch National team. I haven't dug into any of the stats on these teams, but I have a feeling it is going to be a fight for the ladies. It's going to take some solid pitching to give them an edge.
Sunday (and maybe even Saturday night) will be bracket play, but they need to get the pool play games out of the way first to determine that schedule.
Bracket play has been historically rough for the Lasers Scarlet. That seems to be changing a bit this year as they have made it past the first game more often than not. I'm looking forward to seeing them go deep one of these weekends.
In other sports, the Oilers won another game last night to bring the series to 3-2. What seemed like it was going to be a easy ride for the Panthers is turning into a fight now. Way to make it exciting Edmonton!
Meanwhile, the American Cricket teams recent shake up before the T20 has seemed to pay off a bit. They are doing quite well and I dare say there might start to be a little more excitement around the game of cricket in the US.
From what I understand we are at least getting a little more respect from some of the other teams. We will see what that means for the sport here in the future.
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
