Louisiana talent headlined National Pro Fastpitch Women’s Softball League finals in Baton Rouge

The National Pro Fastpitch Women’s Softball League brought their anunal Championship Series to Baton Rouge. LSU and Tiger Park hosted the event this past Thursday through Sunday.

Six teams competed in two brackets to reach the finals which concluded on Sunday, when the Scrapyard Dawgs clinched the three-game series over the regular season champion USSSA Pride two games to one to take the Cowles Cup.

The USSSA Pride won the first game on Saturday, 5-0 before the Scrap Yard Dawgs won game two, 2-0, to force a winner-take-all finales. The Dwags rode their momentum to a 5-2 victory.

The MVP of the Championship game and the series was pitcher Monica Abbott who earned series MVP honors for the fourth time in her career. Two former Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns players – outfielders Brianna Cherry formerly of Louisiana-Lafayette and Nerissa Myers – participated in the finals on the championship-winning Dawgs.

It was also a homecomming of sorts for several former LSU softball players to Tiger Park, including A.J. Andrews and Rachele Fico for the Akron Racers and a pair of rookies, Sahvanna Jaquish for the Chicago Bandits and Bailey Landry for the Texas Charge. Andrews and Jaquish were named first-team All-NPF.

Landry took home the Jennie Finch Award and Rookie of the Year honor as well.

Other ex-LSU standouts in the the NPF include Texas Charge pitcher Brittany Mack-Oakes and Pride infielder Bianka Bell.

Former McNeese State pitcher Emily Vincent was a member of the Texas Charge team.

A notable team that competed in the event is the Beijing Shougang Eagles, a squad composed entirely of Chinese players.