Fossil Ridge competed in the prestigious Female Athletic Network tournament and tested their skills against top level opponents.

The Sabercats opened the tournament with a pair of wins on their home turf against a pair of Colorado teams. Fossil defeated Discovery Canyon 10-6, and followed that up winning against Mead 9-6.

The second day was a different story, finding difficulty against two out of state teams. After the losses to North Gwinnett from Georgia and Berryhill from Oklahoma, Fossil learned plenty from their competition. Coach David Philop spoke about the importance of playing against high quality opponents.

“It’s still a young team, so for us this is a preseason type of thing. The fact that we get to play two outstanding out-of-state teams. It gives us a chance to see where we’re at and if we can compete with some of the best teams around, we can build on that,” Coach Philop said.

Fossil impressed in their final game against the Berryhill Maidens. The Sabercats trailed 8-3 heading into the seventh inning, but weren’t ready to pack it in. The team rattled off four runs to begin the inning, not allowing a single out in the process. Unfortunately, Fossil didn’t score the tying run, but showed resilience in the face of defeat.

“[I was impressed with] the way we bounced back in that second game when it was really over. The kids really stuck with it and fought back. That’s probably what I’m most proud of. It tells me that it’s a team that won’t quit…That makes it fun to get into the ballpark and I’m ready to practice on Monday,” Coach Philop said.

The Sabercats look not to be discouraged by the losses, they seek to increase their experience and comfort and become a truly elite team. 

“[I’m most looking forward to getting our consistency going, getting to know each other better, getting our roles more defined, and what everyone’s responsible and what they need to have accomplished. [I also] gotta get better as a coach. I’m going to try and learn from what happened today and write some things down and we’ll try and get better from it,” Coach Philop said.

Fossil looks to get back on track as they compete in two games this week, first a road game on Tuesday against Castle View, and then on Thursday a home matchup and the start of league play against Monarch.

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