BARRINGTON, N.H. – The U12 Blaze Softball team has made it to the Babe Ruth Softball World Series in Florida. Well, they’ve qualified for the World Series. They haven’t made it to Florida just yet, but it looks like they will if community support continues.
Consisting of girls from Barrington, Stafford and Madbury, New Hampshire, the team won the New England Regional Championship on July 10 following a 21-4 regular season record and four other tournaments, including a tournament win on Father’s Day weekend.
The team will now need approximately $36,000 to make it down to Florida, although they’ve raised more than half that total since beginning their fundraising efforts on Monday.
According to U12 Blaze Softball Head Coach Chad Michaud, the team has played together for about six years not including last year’s season that was lost due to COVID. While the team had similar ability in 2019, schedule congestion precluded any possibility of qualifying for the Babe Ruth World Series that year.
Thus, Michaud knew that this team could make it all the way to Florida given what he saw in 2019.
“We knew we were a good enough team. You are never quite sure until a team begins to gel together, but we knew we were good enough to do this and over time we began to build momentum,” he said. “This has been a good year, and the schedules aligned well so we were able to make it this year. It’s been a unique experience with a group of talented players, it’s been a really rewarding season.”
The team’s GoFundMe page can be found here.
