The Coastal Elite Storm softball team held true to its nickname in not only winning, but storming through most of their opponents, in the USSSA 16U World Series from July 17-23 in Orlando.

The Storm, which draws its roster from Suffolk, Courtland, Hampton, Virginia Beach and Northeastern North Carolina, went 9-0 to win the USSSA (United States Specialty Sports Association) World Series and piled up a 69-6 margin in runs scored through the nine victories.

The Storm delivered five shutouts in the tournament. Through the first five contests, no opponent stayed within eight runs of the Coastal Elite Storm.

When the World Series was down to the top teams in the last rounds, though, the Storm three of the last four games in low-scoring, one-run games, including a 3-2 win over Sidewinders White of Alabama in the semifinals and a 2-1 win over the Kentucky Rockers in the championship game.

The Storm qualified for the USSSA World Series through a number of championship and runner-up finishes in other tournaments this season, said Helena Byrum, one of the Storm’s coaches. The World Series, played at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex, was actually the first USSSA event for the club though.

The season goes all the way back to last August, with a fall slate of tourneys running through November before winter conditioning, then a break, for softball.

“During the high school season, high school coaches won’t allow their players to play travel ball as well during the season,” Byrum said.

So the conditioning season runs up to high school play, starting in February then the Storm picks back up again in June.

“Then we’re playing somewhere every weekend in June and July,” Byrum said.

The tournaments earlier in the summer were fairly close to home in Virginia and North Carolina.

The big goal is lots of games. Then winning trophies and the World Series are very nice prizes, too. The Coastal Elite Storm is 79-14 overall going back to August.

The Coastal Elite Storm is Allyson Babinsack, Heather Baccus, Haley Cooper, Samantha Harrell, Kayla Harris, Angel Harrison, Ashley Haydu, Madison King, Lindsay Russell, Hayley Welch and Kirsten Wuchter.