The year 2020 was FULL of disappointments. After softball was canceled for both Heritage AND Chandler we NEVER thought the fall season would be in jeopardy...boy were we WRONG?! Chandler waited until the very last week of July to inform us that they were once again canceling their fall season. OH.MY.GOSH! All of the club teams were playing and we were just devastated. WHERE can these girls who just want to play ball and not have it rule their lives play??? So we started looking around and one of our teammates dad found...QUEEN CREEK HEAT!!!
We immediately called/emailed/texted all the board members fearing we had missed the sign-up deadline. Well, they were HAPPY to have us and better yet, they asked us to bring an entire team of 10 girls!!! (In Chandler, we are only allowed to bring 5 players--keeps the teams a little more fair). So Coach Scott started texting all our past teammates and we were once again able to bring together our DREAM TEAM DIAMOND QUEENS!
We know when you're allowed to bring your own team, that we would be playing against some "stacked" club teams but we didn't care. Playing hard teams and losing would be better than not playing at all. Tatum was asked to step up and cover the catch position in addition to her normal 1st Base. She is a "utility" player in every sense of the word and stepped up and filled her positions. She was INCREDIBLE! Sounds strange, but Tatum is one of those players you have to watch awhile to appreciate how dang good she is. Her athleticism is not immediately apparent. But after a time you will see that this girl is SMART! She understands the game better than most and will KEEP HER COOL and MAKE the RIGHT play every single time.
As you can tell from the pictures, Tatum just LOVED her teammates. They had each other backs on AND off the field. Tatum spent a ton of time with her friends this fall hanging out at the mall and even went to Fear Farm with a few a them in October.
This is a favorite pic of mine. It was right after our toughest tournament game. WE ALMOST LOST!!! Tatum was up to bat...we were down by 1...we had 2 outs...Tatum had 2 strikes...then BAM!!! She crushed the ball over the 2nd baseman's head and drove in the tie AND winning run!!! She was the HERO that day! We all went to In-N-Out Burger to celebrate their big win!
So turns out, we have a pretty dang good team too. We can hang in the QC!!! We finished our season 13 and 2 and went undefeated in the tournament. So all in all, we were 16 and 2--those 2 losses were against the same team that we in turn beat 3 times for the Championship. We won our final game due to the mercy rule of being ahead 10 runs--final score 14-4. QC gives out rings instead of trophies and our girls were just over the moon about it!
I LOVE this next pic too because this team was our toughest opponent. They had a Coach that was basically...TERRIBLE! He was thrown out of one of our games because he was quite loud and rude!!! So it was quite the rivalry--this team had been winning everything for the past two years in QC--but in the end, NONE of the girls cared! They wanted to take a picture with our team because they enjoyed the athleticism/kindness/challenge our girls gave them.
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| Tori, McKenna, CC, & Tatum |
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| These are the Fab Five-Three-Time Champs Tatum, Jules, Chloe, Marly, & Riley |
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| (Tiny but Mighty) Sophie & Tatum |
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| Chloe & Tatum--1st Season 2013 |
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| Chloe & Tatum 2020 |
We ended the season with a team party/bonfire and Coach Scott's house. What a FABULOUS season! I am SOOO glad we were able to have this moment despite how the year had been going. Who knows what next year will bring but it's gonna be hard to top this team this season. Congrats Diamond Queens.
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