Tournament News first I would like to clear up we did NOT go to Pancho Claus in San Antonio. A team went from our organization and the tournament director did not correct the name.
Now on to the Shock Winter Christmas Games. If you see at our previous tournament at the Trojan Bash our girls just did not play! We took that to heart and made it a point to not display that type of team on the field for this tournament. We started off with Sweet Gold a team that we respect very much. We knew it was going to be a battle and go down to the wire. It really met expectations and came down to 1 timely hit in the game and Austin's Finest won 1-0. Next up we met up with The Mighty Explosion these girls have so much heart but our team was just on fire with their bats. We came out on top. Next up was the Texas Bombers 97 who gave us our first defeat in the Trojan Bash. Once again our bats were just smoking and we were able to pull out the victory. The Bombers are a class act and their coach is respected by all our girls. Round Rock Blaze 97 was up next who picked up a pitcher that we have faced numerous times from the Austin Stars. She pitched an unbelievable game against us. We had to go into ITB against them and they were up first. The bases are loaded with 2 outs and one of their girls comes up with a clutch hit. She brings in 2 runs. We are the home team and we retaliate with 3 runs and a huge hit from our clean up hitter! Now we are in the championship game and facing who we thought we would face Sweet Gold. Here comes the rematch. There were two good pitcher going to battle and we knew both teams wanted the crown. Our defense was very solid in this game making plays and getting once again timely hits. Austin's Finest came out on top of this game 3-0. We outscored our opponents 36-2 in bracket. That is awesome. We would like to commend Sweet Gold because they are the real deal and have it all, defense, pitching and hitting. We hope to meet up with them again in the Spring. Our Austin's Finest girls gave us all they had and now we are going into the Spring on a positive note.
11/18/07
Austin's Finest goes to Trojan Bash with high expectations and did not meet the challenge. We had a sluggish weekend and did not play consistent ball. We came out and beat San Antonio Crush then lost to Bombers 97. We won our first game in the loser's bracket beating Midland Ballaz and then lost our next game to Sweet 97. Our bats were silent and our defense did not play up to par. There is much work to be done between now and the spring!
11/11/07
Austin's Finest goes back to work in the Thanksgiving Classic in San Antonio. We had a good defensive and hitting tournament. We outscored our opponents 72-3. The only loss came in a forfeit that was due to documentation issues. We easily resolved that issue by the next game and won 5 straight to take the Championship trophy back to Austin. We would like to thank Carlee Duran and Victoria Vasquez for guest playing for us during this tournament. We also like to tip our hats off to the Central Texas Knockouts who came in 2nd and displayed awesome sportsmanship.
10/27/07
Austin's Finest goes back to Temple for Monster Mash. The team started off by winning both pool games. We faced LCP 96 in the first bracket game. Our team played a hard fought game against a good hitting team that will be moving up in January and lost 7-4. We then came back and beat RR Blaze 97 at midnight and had to be back at the fields at 8am, we won that game but ran out of gas for the next game against Stix 97. We lost to them 2-1. We did well but our girls did not have that normal hype and showed they were tired. It was a good tournament and we needed to get beat to get back to working hard. We will be ready for our next tournament.
9/28/07
Austin's Finest goes to Temple Fall Bash and goes undefeated to bring home the championship trophy and gives it to Josh Hernandez. He is the brother of one of the Austin's Finest 10U girls and son of one of the Austin's Finest coach's. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor on Monday and had to have brain surgery on Friday morning. He had many people pray for him and come together as a family to help him get through this serious procedure. Josh went in strong and underwent a 4.5 hour procedure and had the brain tumor 100% removed and now is in recovery. One of the things he told the girls from the Austin's Finest was to play hard and not feel sad for him. He rather told them he expected them to win a championship and expected nothing less. The girls did just that and won the trophy and brought it to his room on Sunday night.
9/9/07
Shock Tournament- Austin's Finest comes out with new additions and wins Championship. We lost our first bracket game and won 6 straight games on Sunday to take first place. For being a new team, the girls displayed heart and confidence. We are looking forward to seeing different competition and working together and becoming the best team we can.
7/15/07
Austin's Finest goes to Alva Jo in San Antonio and placed second. We started off by playing the Texas Bandits 96 in the first game and losing 5-0. We had many opportunties and just could not get a hit at the right time. There were too many girls left in scoring position. Then the quest was on to work up the losers bracket to face the Bandits again. We won our second game Saturday evening 17-1. Then the real marathon began on Sunday. We started at 12 noon and needed to win 4 games to get to the championship. We then beat the SA Super Girls 17-1, Lady Sluggers 14-1, Fury 8-0, and Texas Rage 97 2-0. It was time to meet up with the Bandits 6.5 hours later. We had not left the field one time and played back to back and facing the Bandits was what we wanted. We came out and defensively we were just taking care of buisness. Making plays, turning double plays, and throwing people out at home. We then had a big hit in the 5th and scored 2 runs, which was enough to beat the Bandits 2-0. Well 5 games was not enough we had an "IF" game and our sixth game did not start until 8:30pm. Our girls just did not have any more gas. We hung in there defensively but had a couple of errors that we normally do not have and our bats just were not the same. The Bandits ended up taking the championship 6-0. My hats go off to our girls this weekend 10 hours straight time on the field shows how much heart is in Austin's Finest girls and beating the Bandits for the second time this year shows they can play with the best competition in the State.
7/2/07
Austin's Finest goes to Regionals and take care of buisness. We came out playing the home team Buffalo Valley and ended defeating them 17-1 and moving on to Oak Hill Kaboom. Oak Hill came out fired up and took an early lead 3-1 then our girls did there job and came out with some big hits. We ended beating them 5-3 and on to the next game against Marble Falls. Austin's Finest came out beat Marble Falls to qualify for the championship. We then waited for the team coming out of the loser's bracket to face us in the championship. Oak Hill Kaboom ended up battling back and beating everyone to earn a rematch. Our girls came out pumped and with alot of energy and just set the tone very early in the game. Austin's Finest ended up winning 10-0 and crowned Regional Champions. Next up is a tournament in San Antonio then we head to Nationals on August 1st-5th.
6/18/07
Pony Sectionals began play and our girls have been getting prepared for this tournament for the entire Spring League. There were seventeen teams and the Finest were on fire and won our bracket with 4 straight victories outscoring our opponents 36-3. We then had to meet up with Liberty Hill the champions from the other bracket to determine the championship. We came out a little to overagressive and just could not get our bats to meet the ball the way we know we can. Every ball was hit right at someone and Liberty Hill made the plays. They were able to score 4 runs in the last inning and we were only able to score 2. They won 4-2 but we both advanced to regionals and should meet again and we look forward for a rematch. Finest came out with 2nd place.
6/10/07
Austin's Finest went to the State USFA "B" Civil War Championship in New Braunfels. We started our first Bracket game against the Freeze 96 and could not get anything going. Our games was just flat period. We ended up losing 4-1 and going to the losers bracket right away. We had to work our way through the losers bracket if we wanted to earn the championship that we wanted. Our first game was against Mighty X-Plosions and our girls were very fired up to play because they were still mad about the loss to Freeze. We won 22-0. Next up was Texans Fastpitch and we stayed on fire beating them 12-0. Our next challenge was Shockerz 97 and the game started out close but our team finished strong and sent them home with a 8-2 loss. Next up for the Finest was the Bombers 97 to see who would advance to the championship game. The game was a good battle because both teams were hungry and did not want to go home but one teams had to lose. The game was tied going into the bottom of the last inning and we were able to get the lead off batter on base. We had a good solid base hit that drove her home and the Finest were on their way to the Championship against the undefeated Ball Bratz. Our girls had fought hard for 4 straight game and were not going to let this championship slip away. We came out strong and beat the Ball Bratz 8-0. We outscored our opponents 51-3 in the last 5 games. Great Defense from our girls.
6/6/07
August 26th 1-4pm Austin's Finest will be conducting open Tryouts for 10U and 12U divisions. Call 512-466-0502 if interested in trying out before then.
5/22/07
Austin's Finest will be in Round Rock for Memorial Day weekend.
5/21/07
Austin's Finest threw their First Annual Finest Summer Tune UP! The tournament was a huge success with teams coming from San Antonio, Coleman, Grapevine, Burleson, La Grange, Hays, and local teams as well. The out of town teams were very impressed and we were honored for their teams being able to make the trip to Austin Texas. The 12U division had 7 teams and Hitt Orange (San Antonio) came out on top winning the 1st place trophy and 250 cash. Texas VooDoo came in 2nd and Texas Tornado Blue came in 3rd. The 10U division the 96 Texas Trouble (Grapevine) came in 1st place with Sweet 97 coming in 2nd and Freeze 96 coming in 3rd. MVP for 12U was Sydney from Hitt Orange and MVP's for 10U was Aubyn from 96 Texas Trouble and Sam from Freeze 96. Thanks out of towners for supporting us and making a this tournament a success.
Our Austin's Finest played but were unable to walk away with anything. We had many opportunities but did not sieze the moment but it is just another lesson learned. Hard work will eventually pay off.
4/22/07
On 4-21 and 22 Austin's Finest played in Del Valle hosted by the Freeze 96. There were 13 teams and Austin's Finest came in 3rd. We beat G-Force, San Antonio Crush, Groove 97 then met up with the Texas Bandits 96 again to see who would advance to the championship game. This game was played very well by both teams. Our team was behind in the the last inning (visitors) 3-1 and our sticks came out battling and ended up ahead 4-3 with Bandits coming up for their last bat. We battled but they pulled out 2 runs and beat us 5-4. Our next game came against the Fireballs from Waco and our team did not come out strong. We just could not get things clicking and came out short. Our girls came in 3rd but once again our bats continue to get better each week. We will continue to focus and stay working hard to keep improving.
4/15/07
Austin's Finest played in the Styx 14U tournament. There were 14 teams and we came out in 4th place. Our girls met with the Texas Bandits 96 first and pulled out a big win 3-1. The next day we met up with Austin Stars and were not able to make things happen and lost. Then we were in the loser's bracket and beat the Styx 97, Styx 96, Texas Comets before we had to meet up with the Texas Bandits again. This time we were not able to pull out the victory and lost 5-1. The Texas Bandits 96 ended up winning the tournament.
03/25/07
We came out empty handed from Great Balls of Fire in Temple(tied for 5th out of 19). We came out on fire in our first two games of bracket play by beating Central Texas No Mercy and the Austin Stars. Our next opponet was Texas Elite 96 on Sunday morning. We started out strong but at the end of regulation the score was tied 6-6. They came up with 3 big outs and were able to score the winning run in the extra inning. Elite pulled it out 7 -6. Our next game came against the team that won the championship Texas Bandits. We came out very flat and just could not get into a groove. We ended up losing to them 5-2 and going home. We were proud of our girls because the bats came out but as always there is room for improvement. We will continue to work hard to become better. We are a mix group of girls 6 1st years and 6 2nd years. We are still in the growing process.
03/19/07
Austin's Finest will be traveling to Temple this weekend.
We will be hosting a tournament (Finest Summer Tune Up) on May 19th and 20th in Austin. (Geayl Fields) We will have 10U and 12U divisions and it is listed on VTD. Please check it out and register. Teams are already signing up so don't be left out!
03-10-07
Bombers threw on one heck of a tournament with many competitive teams. It was good to see different competition from Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. We played the USA-All Stars, TNT-White, Bombers 97, and Fury. We went 2-2 and look foward to stepping back on the field.
I would really like to say great job to TNT-White (1st place) and the Texas Bandits (2nd place). Both teams are fundamentally sound on both sides of the ball and deserved to be the top two teams for that tournament!
