90 TEAMS FROM 9 STATES VIE FOR WESTERN TITLES

June 1, 2011 – Giovanni Crotti

YOLO COUNTY, CA – The 2011 Western Championships was one the largest in the tournament’s history. The teams competed in near perfect softball conditions as the Westerns made its first appearance in the Sacramento area.

Teams from far and wide traveled to sunny California representing nine different states. Held in Lacey, WA in 2010, the Westerns saw a huge spike in its attendance with the move to Yolo County from 51 teams to 90 teams in 2011!

The competition was fierce at the Westerns as almost half of all of the divisions extended the full length of the bracket into the “IF” games. A number of one-run games littered the scorecards as each division matched up pretty evenly against each other.

The highly competitive 50AAA division saw eight teams duke it out for the title. Viagra Softball Club hailing locally from Roseville forced the “IF” game beating Doerflinger by one run, 18-17. The “IF” game lacked the excitement of the previous game as Viagra Softball cruised to an easy 18-4 win.

In the Women’s 50/55 division Bottom of the 5th, coming off their impressive championship run in Reno, went undefeated in seeding and bracket play. Bottom of the 5th made it back-to-back first place finishes as they beat CA Spirit 50 in the championship game, 13-2.

Historically, the 60AAA division is the largest in most Senior Softball tournaments and the Westerns were no exception. Thirteen teams fought long and hard to advance through the bracket, but at the end of the day only two teams remained, the Masters Marauders and the Redwood City Bay Supporters. The Bay Supporters beat the Masters Marauders in their first game 21-7 and then came back and beat them again in the “IF” game 19-12 to earn the right to hoist up the championship trophy.

The Men’s 75/80 Division was hotly contested as State Roofing and CA Gold Rush fought to the end in the “IF” game. CA Gold Rush, coming off a heart-breaking one-run loss to State Roofing in the Championship game, bared down and finished the job to beat State Roofing 22-15 in the winner take all “IF” game.