The team that started out in the fall as pretty good has just surged to "phenomenally better."

At least that's according to Mike Bowman, head coach of the 14U Haymarket Bobcats. The team's 10-3 spring record backs up his claim as do the Bobcats' two tournament wins out of three competitions.

Compared to the 14-10-1 fall team, the spring squad's hitting is "just getting better every day at practice, because that's what we do for three hours: hit, hit, hit, hit, hit," said Bowman. "We don't even bring our gloves."

On April 17, the team posted a 4-1 record en route to winning the Northern Virginia Spring Opener NIT at Potomac Lakes, three weeks after returning from Pennsylvania with a first-place trophy from Spring Spectacular at the Wyoming Valley Sports Dome. Haymarket defeated the SYA Xplosion 96' 14-0 in the final round after pulling out close wins in three of the first four games of the tournament.

Haymarket split the first two matches with a 6-5 win over the Virginia Crushers White team and 2-1 loss to the Xplosion. That set a pivotal Game 3 against the Front Royal Fire, which the Bobcats needed to win in order to enter the "gold" bracket as opposed to the "silver" bracket for the semi-finals.

Pitcher Anna Torres explained that she had a little extra riding on that game herself.

"Well I had a deal with my mom. I was in trouble that weekend so that she decided that if I did (well), I'd get my computer back," she said, adding that she wanted the team to succeed as well as her "stuff" returned.

Nursing a 4-2 lead in the final inning, Torres said her outside fastball turned out to be particularly effective. However, "it got really tiring" with the bases loaded and one out, Torres said, so she decided it would be best for O'Brien to come in as a reliever.

Sure enough, O'Brien took care of business and shut down the Fire to launch Haymarket into the final four.

"We were all really hyped and we were ready to win and so we didn't want anything to throw us off our game and make us unfocused," said Torres. "We were just really focused and determined."

The fourth-seeded Bobcats entered the semi-finals against top-seeded the Ashburn Shooting Stars White team. That meant Haymarket batted first, which actually turned out to be an advantage as the Bobcats set the tempo right from the start. Diane McDaniel and Shelby Stegmaier both scored runs off of RBIs by Courtney Bowman and Sam Brosnahan to take a 2-0 lead, which provided enough of a cushion for pitcher Kennedy O'Brien to operate comfortable through five innings, earning a 7-3 win and a spot in the finals.

"I told my assistant coach, Randy, I said the team that was going to win this game here, (would be) the team that could last the longest," said the head coach Bowman, crediting his team's depth chart for both pitching and hitting. "We never missed a beat. We hit the ball."

After a scoreless start, a four-run first inning eventually lead to a three-run third and a bat-around in the top of the fourth where the Bobcats scored 10 runs.

"We were basically like the underdog and we were working really hard," said Torres, lauding her defense for helping her in the shutout. Of the win, she said, "I don't know the word for it: we weren't surprised but we were at the same time."

According to Bowman, the team's already ahead of the goals he set out for this part of the season.

"Like I said to my girls, (there are) girls who play all year" that don't win tournaments, he said.