Georgetown University Law Center students made history April 7 in Charlottesville, Va. , bringing the Law Center’s softball program to victory for the first time in the 41-year history of the University of Virginia (UVA) Law Softball Invitational, a charity softball tournament between law schools.

The Law Center brought four student teams and one alumni team to the invitational. However, it was the student A-Team — the Georgetown Law Aiders and Abatters — that secured the victory with a 16-14 win against the William and Mary Law School alumni team. 

Danny Doherty (LAW ’24), captain of the Aiders and Abatters, said the most extraordinary part of the win was being able to witness the development of the program throughout his time at the Law Center.

“We have grown the program tremendously,” Doherty told The Hoya. “We had no outside funding my first year, and we raised almost $16,000 in the past two years.”

Since 2022, the Georgetown Law softball program has grown from two teams to five teams, boasting over 100 student and alumni players.

Given this immense growth, Doherty said walking into the tournament, other teams recognized Georgetown as a program to look out for in this year’s competition — and the team lived up to this reputation during the first rounds of games April 6 and 7.

“The big boogeymen have been UVA because they make all the first-year students play, but we were the talk of the tournament play on Friday,” Doherty said. “We ended up scoring 104 runs on Saturday and we hosed the first 3 teams on Sunday.”

In their first three games, the Aiders and Abatters swept the competition, beating the Charleston School of Law Bad News Barristers 16-11 before crushing the UVA team Hoos Got My Beer 47-1 and the Northeastern University Huskies team 41-6. 

Georgetown’s other teams had more mixed results. While the school’s Bona Fide Benchwarmers team crushed teams from Fordham University, the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and Vanderbilt University by scores of 24-2, 28-2 and 36-0 respectively, its other teams, the Georgetown Law Alumni, Counsel Council and Dimes teams, went 1-2, 2-1 and 0-3 respectively. 

After beating out teams from Brooklyn Law School, the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, which trains attorneys for the U.S. military, and two teams from UVA, the Aiders and Abatters made it to the co-ed championship Sunday evening, where they faced the alumni team from William and Mary Law School. Fierce competition characterized the finale, as the Abatters were down 14-8 at the top of the last inning with two outs before scoring eight unanswered runs to win the game. 

Evan Crumb (LAW ’24), the co-president of the team, said that to him the Abatters’ victory closely resembled the “Miracle on Ice,” the United States men’s Olympic hockey team’s unprecedented 1980 comeback victory over a heavily favored Soviet team. Crumb even used the triumphant finale of the 2004 film to describe the Abatters’ win.

“My [team] defeated [William & Mary] to win the gold medal, coming from behind once again,” Crumb wrote to The Hoya. “It was a lot more than a [softball] game, not only for those who watched it, but for those who played in it.”

Beyond softball, the invitational raised $40,000 — the highest amount in tournament history — for ReadyKids, a Charlottesville-based nonprofit that provides counseling and early learning opportunities for children in the area.

Sally Levin, one of the UVA Invitational Tournament’s directors, said while the thrill of competitive softball brought the law students together, the tournament’s contribution to local charity keeps the invitational going.

“We love getting to bring law students together from all across the country each year for a fun weekend of softball and socializing,” Levin wrote to The Hoya. “As fun as it is playing softball all weekend, it’s even more meaningful to be a part of something that actually makes a difference in our community.”

Crumb added that the team proved the power of belief — even in a team that was bankrupt just two years ago.

“I’ve often been asked in the years since [Charlottesville] what was the best moment for me. Well, it was here, the sight of [13 law students] of such differing backgrounds now standing as one,” Crumb wrote. “Young [people] willing to sacrifice so much of themselves all for an unknown… on one weekend, as America and the world watched, a group of remarkable young [people] gave the nation what it needed most: a chance, for one night, not only to dream, but a chance, once again, to believe.”