The Patrick County Girls Diamond Youth Softball team recently became the first ever 12U State Champions after defeating Fort Chiswell during a best two out of three tournament with a 23-1 score.
Ryan Lawson, parent of one of the players, said Dixie Youth Sports has hosted baseball for about 50 years and recently started hosting softball with Diamond Youth Softball.
Lawson said the team will travel to Fairview, Tennessee later this month to compete in the Softball World Series.
Eleven players, the majority of which are from Patrick County schools, will participate in the tournament. Two team members are from surrounding counties.
“It’s all the states involved in the Diamond Youth. Our first game will be against Mississippi. Then there’s Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Arkansas, I mean there’s every state that is a part of the Diamond Youth,” he said.
Lawson said games started on July 18 with pool play, where all the teams will play a game that day to set the team’s ranking for the tournament.
“So, if you win your pool game, you would play this bracket, if you lose your pool game, you would play the lower bracket type thing. Then on Friday the tournament plays beings and it’s a double elimination tournament, so you lose twice you go home,” he said.
To fund the travel expenses, Lawson said the team is fundraising expenses to travel to the World Series.
“We’re asking for donations from businesses and individuals,” he said.
Lawson said the team’s head coach is Mike Gregory and the Assistant Coaches are Carter Gregory and Steven Fain.
