The Honey Badgers organization was prominent at the Choose Joy! Tournament in Canfield the weekend of May 10-12 as 5 of the program's 6 teams were in action. Starting on Friday night, both 8u teams, the 9u team and the 10u team started the tournament off with 5 wins in 6 games to set the tone. Here is a look at how each team fared throughout the weekend at Choose Joy!

8u Ohl - Playing their first tournament games of the season after a win over Aftershock 8u earlier this month, the Honey Badgers 8u Ohl faced the Warriors 8u twice, the Cobras 8u and their fellow Honey Badgers in Honey Badgers 8u Steele in the Choose Joy! Tournament. The 38 runs in four game proved that the bats were enough, but their opponents' bats had a bit more in each game as they lost three very close games, 18-17 to the Warriors and 11-9 to their fellow Honey Badgers on Saturday, and 10-7 to the Warriors on Sunday. The Honey Badgers 8u Ohl will return to action on May 24th when they participate in the Salute to Service Tournament in Kent.

8u Steele - The Honey Badgers 8u Steele also participated in the Choose Joy! Tournament facing some very familiar opponents. They started with a 13-12 win over the Warriors 8u, a team they had faced 4 times since the first of the year. Next up was a tough Ohio Outlaws team on Saturday morning than handed them a 12-2 loss, but they followed with a 11-10 win over another very familiar opponent - Honey Badgers 8u Ohl. However, Sunday's plans were cut short early when they dropped a semifinal game to the Ohio Cobras 8u, by a score of 15-11 to end the weekend at 2 wins and 2 losses. The Honey Badgers 8u Steele team is back in action on June 1-2 weekend in Youngstown where they will once again face the Ohio Outlaws, Honey Badgers 8u Ohl and the Warriors 8u teams.

9u Mattern - The 9u Honey Badgers continued to add to their impressive resume with two more wins on Friday night. They started with a 8-2 win over the River City Venom 10u team and followed with a 5-3 win over Athletix 9u. As they entered bracket play poised to make a run at the championship, they scored another win over Athletic 10u, this time by a score of 8-0 before facing one of the hottest 10u teams in the region right now - the Honey Badgers 10u Brindle. While the 9u team was disappointed to not advance, seeing their fellow Honey Badgers move on and go on to win the Choose Joy! Tournament certainly was a thrill. 

The 9u team returned to action a week later in Austintown and faced the Pittsburgh Lady Roadrunners and Force 10u in early games, falling 6-5 and 7-6 in those games before bouncing back with a come-from-behind 4-3 win over Passion 9u Cadarette to wrap up pool play. They continued to show their resilience getting a bit of revenge from one of Saturday's losses in beating the Force 10u 8-0 as they slaughtered the competition to advance to the championship. In true championship fashion, the winner was crowned by pitching and defense as they faced the Wolfpack 9u in an error-free pitchers' duel but fell 2-1 to take 2nd place.

10u Brindle - In Canfield last weekend, the Honey Badgers 10u team was not just at Choose Joy on a business trip, even though it may have seemed like it after their dominating championship run. The weekend was about Choose Joy! and the Melina Michelle Edenfield Foundation. For the Badgers it was also about a higher power with some pre-game prayers and proving to themselves that they deserved to stand on top like so many believed they could. In their second game Friday night, a true pitchers' duel, Abbi came up Ms. Clutch to secure the win with a 2 out, 2 RBI single in the top of the 4th. That was all Kacey and the team needed behind her 11 K's to take the victory against their rivals, the Fishbird Ducks 10u. Sunday, after some inclement weather, the Honey Badgers picked up where they left off Friday, but this time they brought the bats. In what seemed to be a personal attack on anyone that stood between them and the championship, they leveled their competition with 35 hits on the day! With 5 hits each from Lizzie, Mia, Kacey, Big Mac and Addie they tacked on 37 runs with 5 doubles, 3 triples and 1 huge out-of-the-park homerun by McKayla, giving their pitchers victories in all 3 games. Kacey came back for one more W in the championship game with a dominating complete game shutout of Thunder Elite to seal the Badgers 5-0 record, and their 1st championship on the season.

13u Fiddler - While participation in the Choose Joy! Tournament did move forward with the four teams above, things got derailed quickly for the 13u team. Despite high hopes, tons of momentum and even more excitement for their first tournament of the season, Mother Nature had other plans. As they started their first match-up with the 412 Crew, the rains came down, soaking the field and players alike. As the playing conditions deteriorated, the Tournament Director and his staff made the call to postpone all games after the Honey Badgers were only able to play into the top of the 2nd inning in 40+ minutes. Down 4-0 with the intent to resume play later in the day, that did not happen as hoped and Coach Fiddler's team was left disappointed when they got the news that they would not be part of Sunday's bracket play. While the team was able to pickup two indoor scrimmages with a few hours' notice at Athletix, the emotion of Saturday's disappointment showed as the girls mustered just 6 hits in two (scrimmage) losses. Honey Badgers 13u - Fiddler will return to action on Memorial Day weekend at the Ashland Spring Classic in Ashland, Ohio as they face off some of the best teams in the State of Ohio.

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