Florida Coastal School of Law’s softball team returned from Charlottesville, Va., the coed division champions of this past weekend’s 34th annual University of Virginia Law Softball Invitational. Fifty-one schools from across the U.S. fielded men’s and coed teams this year.
The local student defeated Ohio State 20-2, Penn State 23-1 and the University of North Carolina 32-0 in the preliminary rounds. Florida Coastal then defeated Quinnipiac 23-6 and beat No. 1 seed Baltimore Law 25-10 in the quarterfinals.
The tournament ended with Florida Coastal beating host UVA 16-11 in the championship.
In addition, Florida Coastal’s Ashley Stafford, who smacked six softballs over the fence in the tournament, won the women’s home run derby.
The event raised $25,000 from entry fees, with $20,000 going to ReadyKids, a Virginia nonprofit that provides counseling services for children; $5,000 was donated to the Public Interest Law Association to provide public-service internships for law students this summer.
In eight of the past 10 years, Florida Coastal’s teams have won either the men’s or coed division. Softball is the law school’s only competitive athletic program, said spokeswoman Nicole Cassis.