Sports
Yongsan women, Osan men take Koreawide softball titles
August 8, 2006
Patrick Schwomeyer of the Osan Mustangs bats during Sunday’s championship game of the Koreawide post-level softball tournament at Yongsan Garrison, South Korea. (T.D. Flack / S&S)
Patrick Schwomeyer of the Osan Mustangs bats during Sunday’s championship game of the Koreawide post-level softball tournament at Yongsan Garrison, South Korea. (T.D. Flack / S&S)
Ben Wilder of the Osan Mustangs races toward third base against Yongsan during Sunday’s Koreawide post-level softball tournament championship game. (T.D. Flack / S&S)
Gretchen Rice of Yongsan Garrison pitches during Sunday’s women’s championship game at Yongsan Garrison, South Korea. (T.D. Flack / S&S)
Shavon Bradford of Yongsan Garrison races toward third base against Camp Humphreys during Sunday’s women’s championship game. (T.D. Flack / S&S)
YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — The last two weekends have been banner ones for Yongsan Garrison’s women’s softball team on its home turf.
Eight days after winning the 8th U.S. Army tournament, Yongsan repeated its Koreawide post-level tournament title, beating Camp Humphreys 17-5 in Sunday’s championship of the double-elimination tournament at Yongsan’s Lombardo Field FourPlex.
On the men’s side, Osan Air Base added the Koreawide tournament title to its Korea Traveling League regular-season championship. But the Mustangs needed two final games to do it, losing 16-15 to Yongsan in the first game before routing Yongsan 26-1 in the “if” game.
Yongsan’s women won despite playing without nine-time All-Army and two-time All-Armed Forces first baseman Vivian Colbert and rising star shortstop Roxanne Ficks. They’re at the All-Army women’s tryout camp in the States.
“We won it for them,” said Yongsan’s Renee Pryor. “We wanted to pretty much show everybody that we could do it without them. It feels great.”
Though on paper Yongsan appeared to not have been challenged, winning by scores of 11-4, 18-5 and 17-5, “we had some close innings,” Pryor said. “We needed to stick together as a team. Once we got down, we needed to pick each other up and play as a team.”
Osan’s men might have folded after their loss to Yongsan in the first final game, a see-saw battle to the wire. But it only served to motivate the Mustangs, who were the visiting team in the second game and came out with bats afire, coach Sammy Kurk said.
“The guys were angry about losing that first game, so they wanted to bat right away and take out their frustrations,” Kurk said. “We were the first-place team all season. It would have been a shame for us to finish second.”
The Mustangs won despite missing two starting outfielders and having players playing out of position. Gary LaFon batted 16-for-18 over the weekend with three home runs.
“Every time he came to the plate with runners on, he was automatic,” Kurk said.
It’s the fourth time in the last six years for Osan to win the men’s title, but the first since 2004.
“We brought it back to Osan,” Kurk said. “It feels great to bring the trophy back to Osan, where it belongs.”
Yongsan’s only two losses in the tournament were to the Mustangs, by scores of 8-1 in the winner’s bracket final as well as the deciding game.
“In our two losses, the first one, we didn’t hit and the second one, we didn’t field,” Yongsan’s Lance Nakayama said. “We gave Osan three-fourths of their runs on errors. They (Osan) hit the ball well. But we didn’t give ourselves a chance.”