Houston, TX - The 12U Houston Lightning won an invitation to Disney at the South Texas Super NIT played in Houston, Texas May 8-10.  The Lightning prevailed in the championship game 7-4 over the MLAB Lightning who also punched their ticket to Orlando for the Elite World Series.  The Houston Lightning indicated that they would forego the Disney berth which now passes to the RBA Seahawks from Corpus Christi or the New Orleans Monarchs.

The Seahawks battled to a 2-1-1 record over the weekend winning games over Bullet Baseball of Lake Charles and American Avengers along with a hard fought tie with the 12 Maroon out of College Station, Texas.  They were finally defeated by the Houston Lightning 11-7 in semi-final action.

Awaiting final determination of the 2nd Elite 32 berth are the New Orleans Monarchs.  Proving themselves worthy of a top ranking, the Monarchs beat the eventual champions, Houston Lightning, in an exciting pool play game to kick off the tournament in grand style and gave fans a glimpse of what the rest of the tournament had in store. The Monarchs also eliminated the nations 16th ranked Louisiana Tigers in first round bracket play and the former Elite 24 champion and number 2 seeded TEAM Rattlers 2-0 before they were finally defeated by MLAB in semi-final action 8-5.  The Monarchs will travel to Memphis next weekend to compete in another Super NIT. TBS has plans to cover this Super NIT and will have the Monarchs favored to win it this tournament and a firm bid to the Elite 32.

Other notable teams participating in the Super NIT were the Banditos Black, the Houston Sox, and former USSSA World Series champion American Avengers.  The Banditos defeated both the Monarchs and Louisiana Tigers in pool play and entered bracket play as the number 1 seed only to see the Houston Lightning have a big first inning in route to a 7-2 victory.  The Banditos are an up and coming 12U team in Houston.  If not for MLAB, the Sox may have made it to the finals.  The Sox opened with a 23-5 victory of the Irving Canes but lost twice to MLAB Lightning finishing 2-2 for the tournament.   In the bracket play game, MLAB opened a big lead and held off a furious Sox late inning rally in a 9-7 final.  The Avengers also had the misfortune of a pool play match up with MLAB and suffered a 4-1 loss which lead to a #5 seeding for bracket play.  In an early Sunday morning battle, the Avengers defeated the Irving Canes 1-0 before being eliminated by the hot bats of the RBA Seahawks in the quarter finals.

TBS congratulates the tournament champion and runner-up Lightning teams as well as the Monarchs and Seahawks. 

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