During the 2016 Softball Players Association World Championship tournament on Sept. 9-11, the best teams from across the country came together and battled for a World Series title. This year, the Montgomery Swarm, consisting of Pearl River County locals and people from surrounding areas, won the AAA World Championship for the 55 and up age group.

Athletes came from multiple teams to form a new, but talented squad of the best local players.

“Usually it takes time when you combine teams, but the transformation was flawless,” Jerry Todd, Swarm player, said. “Our chemistry was the recipe for our success. It was a lot of fun playing with all of them.”

Although they are the Montgomery Swarm, most of the players reside in Pearl River County, including Vance Herrin, of Carriere; Roger Hyatt, of Poplarville; Jerry Todd, of Picayune; Bruce Mathews, of Pearl River County; and Rayford Lee, of Pearl River County. Swarm’s Scott Arban is from the county, but currently lives in Florida. Players from surrounding areas include Coach Don Howell, Gary Nicholson, Johnny Scarce, Craig Penton, Steve Perlman, Keith Oliva, David Griffin and Ronald Johnson.

To set up the tournament, each team was randomly divided into groups of four teams, where they would determine each team’s seed for the championship bracket. The Swarm did not play well in their group games, losing to Woodlawn Funeral 14-13; DT Express, from Atlanta, 19-7 and Polyviou Dental, 21-20.

However, after being placed as a low seed in the championship bracket, they turned around and went 5-0 in tournament play.

“We treated the tournament as if it were just a different day. Each player stepped up when they needed to in order to get each win. Every player had a big play that attributed to our championship, which is a great thing to have,” Todd said.

In their first game, the Swarm found themselves beating the James R. Smith Trucking 25-12, which set them up for a rematch against the No. 1 seed, Polyviou Dental.

The rematch came down to the Swarm’s last at-bat, in which Oliva had the game-tying hit to force the game into extra innings. After a long and hard-fought game, Herring hit the game-winning RBI to end the game at 19-18.

“After our close game against Polyviou in the pool games, we were confident that we could beat them if we had the chance again,” Todd said. “We came into that rematch with a chip on our shoulders knowing we could take them down and we are happy that it ended in our favor.”

After the emotional victory over Polyviou, the Swarm found themselves in another game that was decided by the last at-bat against a very good Dayton Legends team from Ohio, Todd said. With the Swarm trailing by two runs, Nicholson marshaled in the winning runs with a well-placed hit in the outfield.

In the winner’s bracket final, the Swarm faced another talented team, Darrell Harris, in which they held on to another victory with a 23-20 scoring frenzy. Because the tournament was double-elimination, the Swarm faced Darrell Harris again for the championship final after they won their game in the losing bracket against Woodlawn Funeral.

In another heated rematch, both teams kept it close until the last couple of innings when the Swarm built a six run lead going into the last at-bat for Harris. However, Harris managed to score five runs during their last at-bats with the tying run waiting to come home on third base, Todd said. However, the Swarm survived yet again, forcing a pop fly out to end the game 25-24 and claim their hard fought championship title.

“I’ve been playing for 39 years and finally won one. We’ve won some state titles but nothing compares to this. We’ve all had our ups and downs, on and off the field, but the friendships built through this experience will last forever,” Todd said.

After it all, the Swarm placed five players on the All-American team. MVP Ronald “Legend” Johnson, .851 batting average and one home run; Jerry Todd, .844 batting average and four home runs; Vance Herrin, .745 batting average; Roger Day, .700 batting average; and Keith Oliva, .695 batting average.

Because the Swarm won the AAA World Championship, they will be moved up a division to the majors next year as they try to win back-to-back championships.