JOHNSON CITY, Tennessee — The Mobile Thrillers Class “A” 18U softball team finished fifth in the nation Saturday in the USA American Softball Association National Championships in Johnson City, Tenn. Central FL Sting took the 2012 championship trophy.

With three Daphne players (Peyton Grantham, Ashlynn Kimbro and Meredith Mackin) and two Fairhope players (Grey Adams and Megan Dowdy) on the Thrillers region-wide roster and head coach Coby Mackin of Belforest at the helm, the Alabama state champions took their team deeper into the 98-qualifying team national tournament than any local team in club history.

They shot through pool play and into the late rounds undefeated at 6-0 before hitting tough teams in the quarter finals and losing the last two games for the fifth spot. A good run, but it was not what they had hoped for, Mackin said.

“We went up there expecting to win it. And we just kept winning and winning through the tournament, but the further you go, the better the competition gets and we finally got beat by a very strong team,” she said. “We hit the ball hard, but right at them and couldn't get any to fall. And they hit it hard, too, and got a couple to fall and things just went their way from there. That may have slowed our momentum down, because, then in the final game we met another very strong team, another team we could have beaten but didn't and they moved on and we didn’t.”

Their first loss came from the eventual national runner-up, Carolina Cardinals, 2-0. The Thrillers then fell in another close one to the Tennessee Fury. The Central FL Sting then clinched the national title with a 1-0 win over Carolina.

“I’m very proud of this team and how the girls played all week,” Mackin said. “They really played hard and everything came together the way it should, but then things just fell short. I also want to say that this group of athletes was the culmination of many years of hard work by Derek Walters who founded the organization and has coached the Mobile Thrillers for many years. He’s been building and coaching this particular group for three or four years. But he is coaching the 16U team this season and I just got to be the one who got this 18U team this year and got to take them up there to Nationals. It's been great.”

Final results for the 18U National Tournament at Johnson City had not been posted in time for this edition. Visit www.asasoftball.com/tournaments/ for more information.