Pub. 56 2015-2016 Issue 1

41 FALL 2015 Kate played right field for the Senior Team. Mackenzie’s Junior team and Kate’s Senior Teamwon their first three games of the double elimination tournament over the course of the first two days, placing both of them one win away from playing for the championship. But as the brackets whittled down, the teams got tougher to beat. Both the Junior and Senior teams suffered their first loss during their fourth game in the tournament, the Senior team on a controversial call to end the game. The Senior teamwasn’t able to recover from this devastating loss, and lost their next game, eliminating them from the competition but giving them third place for the tournament. For the Junior team, East Brownsville’s team turned out to be the real competition. NWA Junior All-Stars lost to them and then played them again and won. This meant that NWA and East Brownsville were tied. The tie-breaker game was a nail biter for sure. The crowd was enormous as everyone had come to see who would take state. Mackenzie and her NWA teammates fought to the very end, even when the field was swarmed with a pack of bees and the game was paused. In the end, East Brownsville defeated NWA in the championship giving the NWA Juniors second place in the tournament. The Juniors finished second out of 16 teams and the Seniors finished third out of 15 teams. While there were tears from the heartbroken NWA All Star players who worked so hard this summer, the things they gained this summer were worth so muchmore than first place. Dedication, hard-work, perseverance, mental and physical fortitude, friend- ships, and teamwork were just some of the fantastic benefits these girls earned this summer. Not to mention second and third place trophies for Mackenzie, Kate and the NWA All Stars of 2015. 