The Lady Spartans celebrate one of Sevi Harden's homeruns. photo by Andrew Villescas
Spartan Softball takes another big win at their home tournament.
On September 8th and 9th, the Thomas Jefferson Spartan softball team hosted their annual Mile High Classic Softball Tournament. This tournament consisted of 16 teams from around the state, who all traveled to TJ to compete. This was the third year for this tournament, and all profits generated went to help the TJ softball team afford new uniforms and new equipment for the season.
Over the summer, the Spartans won first place in the DPS summer league. Many girls also played club softball on the team Eclipse, which is also coached by teacher and coach Kyler Jackson. The team consists of many star varsity softball players, including: seniors Zoya Robbins, Vasi Reiva, Sevi Harden, Sydney Thompson, Lauren Pulver and Emily Adler as well as junior Daija Robbins. “Our chemistry is unbreakable. I’ve had the same throwing partner for five years. Same coaches, and same parents cheering the team and me on for five years. Chemistry makes the team great. It’s like a big ol’ family of sisters.” Zoya explained.
Over the course of the summer, the team competed and traveled to many tournaments around the country. They played hard and ended up winning the Unites States Speciality Sports Association (USSSA) tournament in Utah as well as the World Series in Jensen Beach, Florida. “Traveling around the country with my team was such an amazing experience because we got to see so many different levels of competition from various teams. It was crazy to be able to compete against some of the best players in the country and just show them what the Spartans are all about,” commented Harden.
After an action packed and exciting summer, the Spartans welcomed the new season with open arms and came out swinging. Coming into the tournament, the Spartans had a record of 5-0, defeating Faith Christian, The Academy, Regis, George Washington, and North High School. With that in mind, the Spartans were clear favorites to win the Mile High Classic, but the team still had a tough road ahead of them if they wanted to win and capture the title of first place. They handled Vista Peak with style, winning 16-0.
“Going into our tournament, we were confident just because it was ours. The fact that our TJ people were watching us lit a fire inside of us. We had to show everyone from every team that we might have played in our tournament what we could to from the jump, and we didn’t hold back against our first tournament opponent Vista Peak,” Zoya said after a huge win. Following that game and a good night’s rest, the team came to the semi finals where TJ faced off against a hungry Northglenn team. After a long game which went into the eighth inning, the Spartans defeated the Norseman 7-5. Winning another game, TJ advanced to the finals against Regis. The Spartans came out scoring first against the Raiders and continued to build a lead while shutting Regis out offensively leading to a score of 7-0 at the bottom of the fifth. Unfortunately, Regis surprised the Spartans and went on a 4-0 run. However, the team was able to escape a comeback with again a dominant defensive performance in the final inning to win the tournament and beat the Regis Jesuit Raiders 7-4.
The Lady Spartans have had a tremendous start to the season and look to continue their success. Be sure to come out and support their road to state!
