Brighton Travel Softball Wins Local Tournament

-Submitted by Coach Rob Barr

The Brighton Travel Softball program, which is a part of the Brighton Youth Baseball Softball Program, took another giant step forward on July 14 and July 15 by winning the Jeannine Dufault Tournament held in Brighton. The 14u Brighton Softball Team played their best softball of the season to become the first Brighton team to win its own tournament.

“A lot of hard work, dedication and tenacity were a part of this magical way to end the season”, Coach Rob Barr said. "We found ourselves having to play three games on Sunday - back to back to back. Seven hours of straight softball in 95 degree weather is a tough thing, however the girls overcame a lot. Our goal the entire year was to play some tough teams, take some lumps, learn from the experience and be better at the end of the season. I would say we accomplished that and more."

The 14u team defeated the Adrian Lookouts in the semi-final game 8-6.

“It was a battle, and I watched them most of the weekend and thought they were the team to beat out of everyone”, said Coach Barr. ”They had good pitching, great bats and a lot of speed. We just trumped them on all of those aspects and our ability to defensively make the secondary plays for outs was tremendous.”

The championship game was a seesaw battle against Northville with Brighton prevailing 15-7. Brighton jumped out to an early 7-1 lead until Northville battled back to make it 8-7.

Coach Barr said, “I kept telling the girls the game wasn’t over and they were going to make a run, but I also expressed to them that their work ethic would overcome anything if they just believed. I encouraged them going into the seventh inning to add a run or two to gives us a better cushion. The next thing I know we hit three triples in a row and put up 8 runs. I told them after the game that was the way to finish the championship game and season.”

The Brighton travel program also boasted the 12u team in the semifinals and had participation from two other 10u teams and another 14u team. The travel program is continually growing in Brighton having more than 60 kids competing on five different teams. Under the direction of Varsity Softball Coach Barr, the travel program is learning to play the Bulldog way and with a Bulldog mentality.

Coach Barr said, “We are trying to ingrain the Brighton Softball way of do things with all of our travel kids. In the past the kids were encouraged to go other directions for travel but my mentality is I would love to see all the Brighton kids stay in Brighton! We have a ton of talent in this community and if we all played together the high school program would truly benefit. I would love to see two teams at every level through 16u. What a great accomplishment that would be for our Softball Program as a whole. In the past we did not play at the highest levels nor did we travel to the State Tournament or World Series. Now that mentality will change as we will highly encourage all of our teams to participate. The big thing is getting all of the BRIGHTON SOFTBALL players to play within our organization.”

Brighton Travel Softball will be holding tryouts Aug. 4 and Aug. 5 at . Please go to http://www.eteamz.com/BYBSP for more information.

Additionally, the Varsity Softball team will be holding a skills clinic July 31, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2 for all ages contact Varsity Coach Rob Barr at coachbarr14@gmail.com for more information.