MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE ALBANY, Ga -- Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany's varsity softball team recently participated in the Marine Corps East Coast Regional Softball Tournament held at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C. and managed to bring back the silver medal.
Not only did the team place second, but they also brought home the first medal in 20 years.
The tournament was played in a round-robin format. Each team played all the teams in their division. There were five teams in the Scarlet division and four teams in the Gold division. Albany was in the Scarlet division and had to play four games in the round-robin.
The first game was played against the 2nd Force Service Support Group and Albany won 4-2.
Game Two was against Henderson Hall. Henderson Hall held nothing back and after two innings Albany was down seven runs with a score of 7-0.
Stepping up their game, Albany came from behind and in extra innings won 8-7.
"With everyone's schedules, we didn't have much practice as a team going into the tournament," said Tom Traxler, assistant coach for the Albany softball team. "The only full team practice we had was the day before the tournament. We gelled well and it seems as though we just fit together as a team."
Albany's next game against Quantico proved to be less challenging with a win of 20-2.
In their next game, Albany's 3-0 winning streak came to an end in the game against Cherry Point. Even though Albany switched pitchers, it still did not win the game.
Albany was defeated 11-5, finishing second in the round-robin.
The top two teams from each division then went on to play single elimination. The top team in the Scarlet division played the second place team in the Gold division and the top team in the Gold division played the second place team from the Scarlet division.
Albany was pitted against Beaufort/Parris Island, last year's gold medal winners, in the game to determine who would play in the championship.
Despite losing their last game, Albany came back against Beaufort/Parris Island, winning the game 7-5, securing their spot in the championship.
Now, it all came down to the championship game. All of Albany's hard work and team effort had paid off.
With their game faces on, Albany took on New River. Despite their efforts, New River could not be stopped. New River won the championship and a gold medal with a final score of 11-0.
Albany didn't walk away empty handed. They were awarded a silver medal; the first medal Albany has won in 20 years.
"We played great as a team," said Jim Freundschuh, an Albany softball team member. "While we were proud to place second, we were even more proud of our ability to play as a team."