While the Gainesville Cannons baseball teams have won headlines over the years for outstanding performances in tournaments and league play consistently during the last three years, the program's softball teams have begun to emerge on their own and are now squads ready to grab their own share of the spotlight.

This season, the Gainesville 12U softball team captured two tournament championships while finishing in second place in three other tournaments. That marks a team best and could mean in the future that when the girls move up to the 14U level, their level of competition may spike too.

The bulk of this particular group of players started three years ago at the 10U level, according to manager Jamie Carayiannis.

"I think the goal was always to have half the kids stay down to play the 10U level and half (move) up to play the 12U level, to build to program," said Carayiannis.

That meant recruiting some kids at ages 8 and 9 to play on a team with 10 year olds. As the older and more experienced 10-year-old players moved up to 12U, the younger ones would gain experience at 10U and become veterans that could guide new batches of 8 and 9 year olds that joined the team.

At the 10U level, Carayiannis said his team "took our lumps" against more talented and established programs in the area. However, he and the Cannons leadership stuck with the philosophy that with "good kids, good parents and okay players," the coaches could develop their teams into a collection of solid athletes.

"Recruiting a great player (from out of town) was never something we wanted to do," said Carayiannis. "We wanted to have home grown kids. We wanted kinds from Haymarket, from Gainesville."

Three years later, "every tournament that we've entered, except one, we've been in the finals," he said.

A tournament-championship 7-3 win against the Winchester Mavericks after the Mavericks beat the Cannons earlier in the season demonstrated the "work ethics and the growth of the kids," according to the coach.

One of the team's most reliable workhorses turned out to be Teresa Wagner, who would pitch three games in one day in a given tournament.

"(She) hit her spots, worked her fastball (and) change up," said Carayiannis, adding that she's developed a rise ball and a curveball.

Wagner's battery mate at catcher rotated between Stephanie Henke and Anna Ramirez, who the manager credited with being brick walls behind the plate that could challenge would-be base stealers effectively.

"Both those kids can do that. Both have cannons for arms," he said, later adding, "Even if you're not throwing (them) out... you're getting the coaches questioning whether they want to steal a base."

10U

At the 10U level, long-time Cannons mainstay Troy Toureau has taken the helm and led the girls through travel tournaments that included a stop in Broadway, VA where the team earned a third-place title in the Twin Town Tussle.

The team comprised of eight 10-year-olds, three 9-year-olds and one 8-year-old exited pool-play of the tournament at 3-0, defeating opponents from Spotsylvania, Front Royal and Broadway before moving on to the final playoffs.

Allison Wagner, the younger sister of Teresa, earned a 3-1 record overall from inside the pitcher's circle, giving up 13 runs in her four outings.

Toureau described her as the team's ace due and "probably one of the better pitchers in the area" due to her experience and consistency throwing.

"She always keeps us in the game," he said.

Meanwhile, Kailey Scott, whose older siblings Evan and Kelsie have played for Battlefield High School''s championship baseball and softball squads respectively, earned a pool-play win of her own by only giving up two runs in a 4-inning performance.

"She's small for her age but she has a heart. She's a tough little girl," said Toureau, later adding that she will "probably become our No. 1 (pitcher) for girls 10U in the fall" once Wagner moves up to 12U.

While Wagner can overpower hitters, Scott's fastball is more like another team's change up and her change up is even slower. According to Toureau, that actually keeps batters' off-balance and makes her hard to hit after facing faster pitches because they tend to get ahead of the ball when swinging.

"Both of them are very consistent in their ability to throw strikes," he said of Wagner and Scott.