Miracle comebacks, big plays and ice packs were just some of the going ons surrounding the county wide, Girls Softball District Tournament on Tuesday. The IYAA fielded one team in Ennis and one Grandview while a couple of IYAA players represented Italy at the Upchurch Fields in the 8 & Under Division.

There wasn’t an Italy team involved in any of the four tournament games at Upchurch Field on Tuesday but there were a few Italy players that local fans were able to rally around.

Italy’s own Lacy Mott, who was added to the Frost roster for the tournament, made the hometown fans proud as she was not only the last line of defense for the Lady Polar Bears as a centerfielder, Lacy was also a big-time hitter helping Frost score enough points to edge out the Hillboro Lions Club team 9-6 in the 1st round of the tournament.

The Milford Bulldog team had Italy’s own Alex Jones playing left field for them since the beginning of the season. Alex ran the bases more like a jackrabbit than a Bulldog, but that was just fine for Milford’s Head Coach Ty Evans.

And just to give you an idea of how tough the Milford team will be to beat in the tournament, one of the players was injured during the warm up after taking a softball to the nose and needing an ice pack to stop the bleeding. Where most players would have called a night, Hannah Gates got treatment, rejoined her team before the game started and helped Milford win.

The miracle comeback of the day was turned in by the Italy Gladiators team (12 & Under Freshman Division) who were playing in Grandview. Coach Michael Chambers and Coach Ronda Cockerham and their “Darlings of the Diamond” were 1-loss away from elimination, trailing 17-2 going into their last at bat and hoping for a miracle.

And it happened. The opposing pitcher who had been performing well, suddenly was loosing control of her speed pitches. She desperately tried to rotate the tightness out of her throwing shoulder as strikes were getting hard to come by.

Coach Chambers instructed his girls not to swing at any bad pitches and Italy began getting one batter walked, and then another and so on.

When the Umpire called the game, Coach Chambers realized his girls had just scored 16-0 straight runs during their last at bat to stay alive in the tournament with a 1-1 record, winning the moment 18-17.

Congratulations to our Italy players and all the participating teams. It has been an exciting tournament so far. We’ll see everyone back at the fields tomorrow!

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