Spokane Teams Sizzle

Local teams took the first day of the Amateur Softball Association Women’s Major Modified Pitch National Tournament by storm Friday, with four of five Spokane teams winning their first-round games.

Kimmel Athletic defeated New Hampshire’s Rogers Renegades 5-3, Waffles N’ More edged Minnesota’s Don’s Electric 6-5, Brunette Sportswear beat Employers Health Insurance of Wisconsin 10-5 and Team Spokane pounded Hollywood Sports Complex of Minnesota 11-1.

Colville’s Hites/Crawford Doors cruised to a 7-1 victory over J&J Thunderbolts of New Hampshire. The Outlaws, the Moses Lake team, had a first-round bye.

PA Club, a team that has played in every championship game in the nationals since 1990, came from behind to nip Pyramid Car Stereo 6-5, handing Spokane its only loss.

“We’ve been very aggressive coming out,” said George Albano, Team Spokane’s coach, of Spokane’s opening-day success. “That’s the way Spokane plays.”

Road trip

Players and fans of Don’s Electric arrived on Thursday after driving 22 straight hours from Minnesota.

“There were two vans, and we had five girls in each van,” Sally Torfin, mother of second baseman Nicole Torfin, said. “We were very tired.”

The team decided to make the grueling journey in order to avoid the high cost of coming by plane.

“It let us save some money for spending here, which I’ve started to do already. Shop, shop, shop!” Torfin added.

Although they are enjoying the drop in humidity immensely, there is something the Minnesotans are enjoying even more.

“No bugs! No mosquitoes!” exclaimed Don’s Electric fan Sophie Winter.

Smaller field

Only 15 teams are playing in the national tournament this year, compared to last year’s 29.

Hites/Crawford Doors shortstop Laurie Hite, whose team finished seventh in last year’s nationals in Maryland, had mixed feelings about the decline in attendance.

“I’d say it’s kind of a disadvantage because it means that a lot of teams don’t want to come over here and play,” she said, “but it’s nice because we know nine teams out of 15 and what they’re like.”

New combination

As opposed to many other teams who have been playing together for over a decade, Spokane’s Waffles N’ More just started playing together this year and beat out a more experienced team in its win Friday.

“It was a great feeling,” coach Kim Mitchell said. “We’ve struggled all year. It’s just nice to come into the tournament and get our first win.”

How nice is it?

Very nice, considering the fact that losing would mean having to win six straight games to get into the championship game as opposed to three more wins from the winners bracket.

“You get in that losers bracket and it can be a long weekend,” Mitchell added.

Title-game vets

One of the teams to beat this year is PA Club out of Massachusetts, the highest finisher of last year’s national tournament to be playing this year.

The team has played in five-straight championship games in the nationals since 1990, but only won in 1993, and went on to win the world tournament in Puerto Rico that year.

Some may be surprised that the success sometimes adds extra pressure to the team.

“Being in the championship every year, the next year you come out, everybody’s head-hunting for you,” coach Chuck Lombardo said.

“There isn’t a team in this tournament that our team can say ‘no problem’ about,” Lombardo said.

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