Top row (L-R): Morlin Hastings, Peter Romeo, Charlie LaNeve, Keli Remus, Todd Manary, Rich Figueroa, Brad Jones, Len Gann, Ed Clark. Bottom row (L-R): Barry Emmons, Carlos Moore, Greg Stroud, Debbie Seguin, Trevis Miller, Loren Halverson.
Morlin Hastings
The SaddleBrooke Rattlers softball team brought home a hard-fought championship from the Firebirds’ second annual Let Freedom Swing Tournament held in Green Valley. The Rattlers finished the seeding round with a record of 3-1, earning them the second seed going into the single elimination round on Sunday.
Injuries started to pile up for the Rattlers, but every player stepped and played where needed and delivered critical hits. The Rattlers first elimination game was against Old Influence, who the Rattlers nearly beat 18-17 in the seeding round. The game was tied 7-7 after 5 innings; it took the Rattlers until the 6th inning to establish a semi-comfortable lead of 15-8 going into the 7th inning. In the last inning the Rattlers held Old Influence to just 1 run and came away with a 15-9 victory to advance to the championship game.
The championship game was a rematch against One Time who the Rattlers nearly beat 12-10 in the seeding round. One Time, as the fourth seed, was coming off an impressive win over Green Valley Fever, the number one seed, to make it to the championship game. As is typical with Senior Softball you play a lot of the same teams in Tucson tournaments, and in fact a lot of the players play with or against each other throughout the year in local leagues. It could almost be called a friendly but competitive game for bragging rights.
After 3 innings the Rattlers held a tight 10-7 lead over One Time. The Rattlers scored 11 runs over the rest of the game and held One Time to just 2 runs coming away with a 21-9 victory just before the sun set.
Overall the team batted an impressive 700 in the elimination round, scoring 36 runs in 2 games. A few offense standouts for the tournament were Miller batting 889 with 20 RBIs, Manary batting 882 with 12 RBIs, Stroud batting 875 with 4 RBIs, and Halverson batting 818 with 8 RBIs. Figueroa earned the Tournament MVP for his offensive (batting 750 with 19 RBIs) and defensive performance throughout the weekend.