The Villages Golden Gals 75+ team was a perfect "6" in winning the 2017 SPA Women's 75 division World Tournament 9/20-22 at heritage Point Park in Dalton, Georgia..
The Village team went 3-0 in bracket play and 3-0 in pool play for a perfect 6-0 record, beating every team in the six team division.
According to SPA 75 Manager-of-the-Year Chris Evans, the Golden Gals worked hard for the title.
"We just don't get together on a weekend and practice, we have a routine we follow each week," Evans said. "Each day we get together and field a 100 batted balls and also work on our hitting."
The defensive training paid off big time as they allowed only 41 runs in the six games while they scored 74 runs.
"When Midge Ferrero started the Villages program a couple of years ago most of the girls had never played softball before," the manager said. "Midge worked hard getting this team where we are today. We owe her a lot."
The Golden Gals, who are all from The Villages, has taken the training and extra work to heart. This was their second successive SPA World title to go along with Senior Nationals in Birmingham and the SPA Pensacola tournament.
In Dalton they beat Canada's Sportaculars 13-9, 16-5 Ohio Tri-Stars 13-4 in bracket play. In pool play they defeated Tenn. Sr. Stars 11-10, Florida's Freedom Spirit 9-7 and the Virginia Golden Girls 12-6.
The Sportaculars took runner-up honors followed by Ohio Tri-Stars, Tn Sr Stars, Freedom Spirit and Golden Girls.
The Champs also raked in a number of individual awards. In addition to Evans being manager-of-the-year, Fred Greenlee was named assistant manager-of-the-year. Selected to the All-American All-Tournament team were Barbara Bailey, Dolores Fahrney, Marcia Halvorson, Virginia Rowand and Bonnie Kyle Blamphin. LindaSoos and Cookie Cook were awarded championship game balls.
Team members are Bailey, Fahrney, Lois-Jean Harrington, A.Darlene Hedrick, Carol Walther, Barbara Harju, Patricia Hurd, Leadema Radford, Borie, Dorothy Burrell, Marie Panza, Noreen Murphy, Marian Milham, Judy Lewis, Soos, Rowand, Halverson, Judy Lewis, Joyce Turner, Florence Cook, Kyle-Blamphin, Evans and Greenlee.