Milam County Judge Steve Young threw out the first pitch at the opening ceremony of the Texas Teenage Softball’s T-ball State Softball Tournament at the Rockdale Girls Softball Field on Monday afternoon in front of people from all over Texas.
The Rockdale Heart-breakers and the Milano Lil’ Eagles are the hosts of the 16-team bracket. Both teams were qualifiers for the state championships since the TTAS gives an automatic bid to the top two teams of the league that hosts the tournament.
According to Rubio, hosting the six-and-under T-Ball tournament was ideal for her and other members of the RGSL board.
“We applied to host a younger state tournament because they bring in more fans,” Rubio told the Reporter in June. “There’s going to be little girls with bows in their hair all over Rockdale.”
The Heartbreakers began tournament play on Monday evening with a 16-9 loss to the Riesel Diva Express. They played in an elimination game on Tuesday evening against the Holland Hornets after press time.
Before the Rockdale squad fell to Riesel, the Milano Lil’ Eagles defeated the Itasca Lady Cats 16-3.
In the second round, the Lil’ Eagles faced the Normangee Panthers on Tuesday evening after press time.
HOT SHOTS—After fighting their way out of the loser’s bracket last week in Cameron with four straight wins, the Rockdale Hot Shots traveled to 150 miles to Rusk Monday afternoon to start the Texas Teenage Softball 8-and-Under Coach Pitch State Tournament.
The team did bake sales at Brookshire Brothers, Wal-Mart and the baseball field this past week to help raise money for travel and accomodation expenses.
Coach Clint Owen has told the Hot Shot players not to get nervous.
“We actually practiced earlier in the day on fourth of July,” Owen said. “Just to make sure the girls got the chance to throw and hit before this week.
“But I told them at the end of practice to not make this week seem bigger than it is. We just have to play our game that we’ve played all season.”
The Hot Shots beat the top-seeded Hubbard Extreme 17-14 on Monday afternoon and lost to the Axtell Tindle 15-5 on Tuesday evening.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.