ASA SOFTBALL: Southern Force comes together for title

A loss to the Mississippi Rippers put the Southern Force Under-16 travel softball team on the brink of elimination at the American Softball Association Southern Class B Nationals in Ridgeland, Miss., last weekend.

It was the same predicament the team faced at the state tournament in Mobile three weeks earlier.

“I just told them, ‘We’re going to go win these three games and we’re going to win this,’” Force head coach Alan Earles said. “It was the same thing I said in Mobile. And they just went out there and got it done.”

Just as they did in Mobile.

With a 9-0 win over a team from El Paso, Texas, and two subsequent wins over the Rippers, Earles said the Auburn-based Force became the first travel team from the area to pull off a state and national title in one summer since the Dirt Devils did three years ago.

Earles knew he had a good team coming together when he started forming it last November. He just wasn’t sure how good.

“It’s a real shock to have the trophies I’ve got at home,” Earles said. “I sure wasn’t expecting that.”

The Force got off to an inauspicious start this summer, going 2-2 at a tournament in Millbrook.

“We wondered what we had then,” Earles said.

But once the Force’s roster rounded into shape with Beauregard’s Peyton DeLong (2B), Robin Dunaway (P) and Amy Goodson (CF), Beulah’s Emily Miller (LF) and Jenna Walker (1B), Springwood’s Jordan Edge (P), Valley’s Ali Earles (CF), Lacy Newman (3B) and Carson Abrams (SS), Russell County’s Bridgette Bush (1B) and Jessica Argue (RF), and LaGrange (Ga.) Academy’s Marina Wilkerson (C), the team took off.

The Force have compiled a 25-7 record this summer and won four of the six tournaments they’ve entered, none as big as their most recent one in Mississippi.

“Winning state was the goal,” Earles said. “Nationals was just the icing on the cake.”

The Force had beaten the Rippers, 8-0, in pool play earlier in the tournament before losing to them in the winners’ bracket semifinals.

Then they took an 8-3 win at 11 a.m. Saturday to force a 1 p.m. final.

Earles had been relying on a combination of Edge and Dunaway in the circle all summer.

But the final was all Edge. She gave up only four hits and a walk, striking out five and making three first-inning runs stick in the Force’s 4-2 win in the title game.

“She was the best pitcher there, and the best pitcher in the state tournament and the best pitcher in the other two tournaments we’ve won,” Earles said.

Edge also swung a hot bat, hitting .381 for the tournament. Miller hit .450, Goodson hit .407, and Wilkerson led the team with a .519 average.

“If one group’s not hitting, the others are,” Earles said. “I’m fortunate to have this bunch, because if one or two or three or four are having a rough day, then the others are swapping out and having a good day.”

The Force are playing a tournament in Troy this weekend, and Earles said they could possibly play seven more tournaments before the end of November.

If they can stand playing that much softball.

“Sooner or later, you’re going to get tired and want to do something else,” Earles said. “I’ve got a handful that’ll go year-round, every weekend. And if we’re not playing, they’ll find someone else who is.”

Earles said he has been coaching recreational ball for 15 years, but hasn’t had a group like the Force before.

“You can have the best players and still not accomplish what we’ve done,” Earles said. “I don’t know if I’ve got the best players, but, dad gum, we gel together.

“I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

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