This past weekend Russellville hosted a softball tournament at their complex. However, it wasn’t exactly how Coach Smith had planned it.

The tournament was initially planned to have 26 teams consisting of varsity, junior varsity and junior high teams. But due to the threatening weather, Coach Smith decided to keep it as local as possible.

“We had Belgreen, Tharptown, Red Bay and our girls there to play Saturday,” Smith said. “That way if it got rained out or whatever, no one would have traveled too far.”

But the rains held off for the most part and the teams finally got to play a few games—a rare occurrence so far this season.

“We got the fields in good shape and ready to play on,” Smith said. “Thanks to a lot of hard work from the parents everything worked out well.”

Smith said that usually the preseason and early part of the season is when coaches are able to evaluate their players, but this season has been hampered by the weather.

“I’d rather be hot at the end of the season anyway,” Smith said. “But this weather has kept us from being able to evaluate our players the way we’d really like to. Now we have area games coming up so we have to make adjustments pretty quick.”

Russellville won all three of their games against Red Bay, Tharptown, and Belgreen and Smith said he’s pleased at some of the progress his team is making.

“Kayla Cochran is a big player for us,” Smith said. “She is our lead-off batter and a solid center-fielder.

“She had a few inning-ending catches out there and that really helps prevent the other team from having a big inning,” Smith said. “Morgan George is our number two hitter in the lineup and she’s been having a good season so far. She’s had her two best games against Tharptown so far. I think she’s 8-8 against them.”

Smith said with the area games starting this week it will be time to re-evaluate players at some of the positions and start trying to find the best nine players.

“We’ve got about seven players locked into their position right now and we’re trying to let everyone get enough swings and innings in so we can see who our best nine players are,” Smith said. “We’ve got solid players though. And we’ve got some solid young players, too.”

Sydney Burcham is a freshman infielder for the Golden Tigers and she is leading the team in RBIs. And senior starting pitcher Casey Brandenburg is sitting at 5-1 on the season heading into area matchups this week.