Sean C. Morgan
Emili Riggs had a great time and learned a lot visiting Chattanooga, Tenn., and playing in the national American Softball Association tournament.
“It was really fun,” Riggs said. She and her team The Fury, played against teams from Alabama, Texas and Michigan.
Riggs, a senior, played catcher with The Fury, a summer softball team coached by Central’s Amber and Tony McLean. The team includes players from Eugene to Portland. She has played on the team since her the eighth grade when her coach, Steve Hummer, sent her and pitcher Megan Graville to fill out the team for the state tournament that year.
“They were all really good,” Riggs said. Her team faced pitchers who threw in the 60-mph to 65-mph range, like their own, who throws 64 mph on good days.
“No team was bad,” Riggs said. “There’s no easy game. You don’t get an easy bracket.”
The Fury was among 172 teams in a double elimination tournament. The team faced an Alabama opponent in pool play, losing 4-3.
In the first bracket game, The Fury defeated a Texas team 9-6 and then lost a game to a Michigan team. In a rematch against the team from Texas, The Fury lost and was eliminated from the tournament.
“The last game, we were hitting really well,” Riggs said, but they were line drives right to people.
Riggs batted .561 during the tournament. In one game, she hit a single, double and triple and caught a pop-up behind the plate.
She learned quite a bit from the trip, Riggs said. “Definitely the hitting experience and seeing the different teams and different styles. I can bring it all back and tell my coach.”
Their opponents used a variety of base-running tricks, she said. Fast runners were common and so were suicide plays. But they couldn’t steal all the time with catchers on the watch picking them off.
Riggs enjoyed Tennessee too, she said. “They were really nice. Everybody was really nice.”
But the weather was constantly 100 degrees with about 100 percent humidity, Riggs said. Playing in that heat was difficult, especially with catcher gear on.
She was told that was the hottest week so far this summer, she said.
“What a fabulous trip,” said her mother, Barbi Riggs. “We had such a great time. (Emili) played hard and played well.”
The people were friendly and chatty, she said, and they had some of the best food ever. They tried grits, okra and deep-fried pickles, which were delicious.