Florida-commit Layla Lamar, #3 in the 2024 Extra Elite 100, has agreed to blog for Extra Inning Softball this fall.
You can also read a profile on her we did titled: Layla Lamar… Great Bloodlines For One of the Best Talents In the Nation.
The speedy third baseman, who is recovering from a knee injury, and her Lady Dukes-Lamar teammates, who are based out of North Carolina, were in Texas this past weekend for the Hotshots Fall Invitational.
Here’s how everything went down…
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LADY DUKES 18U GOLD RECAP – WEEKEND OF OCT. 3-4, 2020
This weekend … well, with my team it feels like a whole week.
It started the minute we got off the plane in Texas. The first thing we all wanted to do before practice was take a nap. But once we all ended up in my hotel room, it turned into a comedy show from there.
Typically, every tournament we arrive a day early to practice and bond as a team. We often go out to dinner, go shopping or even just do homework together in the hotel lobby. Honestly, those are the days I’ve made some of the best softball memories.
This weekend was a little different. We have a brand-new team and a couple injured players (including myself). So our focus this past weekend was to get to know each other better and learn what our roles would be for the 2020 fall season.
Personally, I never thought I’d go to a tournament and be the scorekeeper and the ball girl, but that will be my job this fall while I am recovering from my knee injury.
Friday was the start of the Hotshots Invitational Tournament. We had late games this day, so we made the best of our time. Coach James (Lamar) always calls me and (Duke-committed LHP) Cass (Curd) the two “bougie ones” of the group so we made sure we lived up to that title!
Cass and I started the day with breakfast at a Paris-themed Cafe, followed by a shopping trip at the Woodlands Mall. After our girls’ morning out, it was back to the hotel to put our game face and fits on.
If you know the Lady Dukes, you know our speaker stays charged and bumping on game day! On Friday, not only was our speaker full of energy, but the team was too. From warm-ups to the last pitch of our final game we were super excited to be able to get on the field. The team played really well, but our bats were dead.
Due to our lack of hitting, the outcome of our games was not the best on Friday. Coach got on everyone and let us know that our run production was unacceptable, but he congratulated our newcomer Jayla Jarrell. Jayla came into the game against the Hotshots off the bench, going 2 for 2 and made some spectacular plays on defense. I think everyone learned from that and realized how important it is to take advantage of any opportunity we get.
After every team meeting, all of us girls talk by ourselves; that night we decided that tomorrow we would not have the same problem. One of our other coaches, “Pops”, often reminds us that whenever something bad happens we have to “flush it” (move on and learn from our mistakes) and that’s exactly what we did.
Saturday afternoon bracket play started. Everyone came back to the field refreshed and ready to go! We started the day with a win against the Sudden Impact. That game our bats really started to come alive. I think the highlight of this game was that everyone had amazing energy and we played as a team.
That positivity carried over into the next game when we pulled out a win in a tight game against Athletics-Mercado. I remember talking to some of the girls and telling them that I wanted to see a “long ball,” so that I could get some good pictures of home run celebrations. They laughed it off, but this game was the start of the six home runs hit by the team in just 24 hours (Aminah Vegah – 3, Ana Gold – 1, Kairi Rodriguez – 1, Tyrina Jones – 1).
Not only did we start a home run rally, but this game was full of ups and downs. We had multiple bad calls by the umpires, a rowdy crowd … overall it was just a tense environment. I feel like at a certain point the team started to get uptight, but Coach James called us all in a circle. Not to yell at anyone, but to crack jokes on everyone in the huddle. He loosened everyone up, including myself. I think we were starting to get out of our element. But Coach reminded us to be ourselves and that the outcome of this game would show it.
He was right. Everyone loosened up immediately. Our team’s spark plug (Duke-committed OF) Breezy Burnett immediately started making beats on the buckets, cheering super loud and joking around … that was like a breath of fresh air to everyone. Cassidy Curd went into the last inning with insurance of four runs and shut them down with three straight strikeouts to conclude the game.
After good games, Coach doesn’t really have much to say. He reminds us to keep up the good work and his favorite line is “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” … we carried this mentality over onto championship Sunday!
Sunday was an early morning, Pops said he wanted to hear bats cracking at 6:45 a.m. From the moment I stepped out of the car, I was pumped that the team was undefeated in bracket play and I had a really good feeling about how the rest of the day was going to go.
The first game was at 8 a.m. vs. Hotshots Premier-Nelson, who beat us by a few runs on Friday. One thing I love about us is we don’t get discouraged at all and it’s going to take a whole lot for the same team to beat us two times in a row. And like I predicted, they didn’t. Cassidy Curd threw a shutout and with our offense producing a few runs … that’s all she needed. We came out of that game with a 2-0 win, ready to play the next game to put us in the ship.
The next game we played was against Team NC-Eaton, who we had already played on Friday and tied them 0-0. But this time we made sure to produce a different outcome. (Purdue-committed UT) Tyrina Jones opened up the floodgates early with a grand slam in the first inning. From there it just went downhill for everyone. Everyone started hitting and some phenomenal plays were made on defense to keep us in the game. We came out of this game with a win by 8-plus runs.
Unfortunately, the tournament was running behind and the championship game would not have been played until 7 p.m., but by that time everyone would have had a flight to catch so we left the tournament early, but we definitely left our impression on everyone who was there. After every tournament we take a team personality picture, and with plenty of new faces it turned out great!
We ended our weekend with a team lunch at a Mexican restaurant. With plenty of laughs, good food and a few noise complaints, we concluded a great weekend! I cannot wait to get back together for our tournament in Spartanburg, South Carolina, soon.
— Layla Lamar, Lady Dukes – Lamar
