The temperature at Southwell Park in North Chelmsford was a tick above 90. But rather than cooling off in a pool, the players on the New England Shockwave girls’ softball team were gearing up for five hours on the diamond at the recent 18U All-American Tournament.

The Bridgewater-based club competes as an Amateur Softball Association member and frequently plays two to three games per day in weekend tournaments.

For a player like Savannah Neilan, a pitcher/third baseman from Somerset Berkley Regional High, the grueling schedule is not new.

“The batters are quicker to adjust to different kinds of pitches,’’ said Neilan, who has been playing club ball for 10 years. “So as a pitcher you have to mix up speeds, mix up locations, and spins.’’

The ASA has been organizing tournaments since 1974, and the level of competition, along with membership, has grown every year. And if a player is determined to play the game at the next level, summer ball is part of the developmental process.

“Some of these girls are throwing as hard as college pitchers,’’ said Shockwave head coach Mike Terceira, who also works with the hitters on the women’s softball program at Wheaton College in Norton.

“Some of them are throwing 55-65 (m.p.h.).’’

So Terceira will prepare the players for the heat they will face in the batter’s box.

Kim Popieniek focuses on the hurlers. A two-time All-American in the circle at Plymouth State, she founded the Shockwave in 2013, and has also coached with Terceira at Wheaton.

At Plymouth State, she racked up 1,109 strikeouts, the seventh-highest career total in Division 3.

Neilan has benefited from Popieniek’s instruction and experience at the collegiate level. The rising senior throws a fastball, a drop, a drop-curve, a screwball, and a changeup, which she considers her best pitch.

“The hardest thing to adjust to is obviously the speed, but knowing your pitcher, knowing what the go-to strike is, is also important,’’ said catcher Jules Newman, a Swansea resident.

At this point, the girls on the Shockwave have adjusted to the speed — it would be hard not to considering the frequency with which they play.

Along with their six summer tournaments, the Shockwave also schedule two 10-game seasons during the fall and winter.

“I can see girls that I know all over the place,’’ said Alli May, a pitcher/infielder from West Bridgewater. “I can see girls that I know in tournaments from Virginia to Canada.’’

As a result, players often see familiar faces from opposing sides.

However, ASA softball is also a great opportunity to meet new players. The organization offers showcase tournaments in which individuals, rather than teams, can sign up to play.

“You show up, they give you a number, and you play with eight other random girls,’’ said Lauren Gelly, a member of the Canton Dirt Dawgs 18U team.

“It shows you what it’s like to play in college.’’

The 16-year-old shortstop from Hanover High has been on the varsity team since she was a freshman (she has played club softball since she was 11).

“It’s different than playing high school, because you’ve been playing with them your whole life,’’ said Gelly, a first-year member of the Dirt Dawgs.

“Playing club, I’m catching people I’ve never caught before and having to play different positions.’’

The rising junior has hopes to play in college, a goal shared by her new teammates, including Jenna Conroy, a second basemen at Milton High.

Conroy believes that the focus on improvement that the Dirt Dawgs promote has been a huge benefit to her game.

“The practices are more structured, and I’m getting more practices in compared to girls just playing town [ball],’’ she said.

But, as always with baseball and softball, it comes down to pitching.

“If a girl wants to play in college she has to play at this level, because of the high level of pitching,’’ said Paul Greene, who runs the Tanner Pride Summer Classic tournament scheduled for Aug. 5-7 in Woburn. The Dirt Dawgs will close out their summer season in the tourney.

Autumn Brown, a recent Marshfield High graduate headed to Wellesley College this fall, is playing for the Bay State Thunder, based in Braintree.

Based on her own club experience, Brown agrees with Greene, but still values town summer softball. She currently plays in the South Shore Summer League, made of 13 teams from Quincy to Middleborough.

“For me, playing town is an opportunity to have fun . . . to not worry about having college coaches there,’’ she said.

Others, like Mark Germano, also value the town experience.

A former vice president of the Marshfield Girls Softball League, he coaches Brown’s 18U team. And for him, the player cost of ($195 for a 28-game schedule and uniforms, etc.) is worth every penny.

“If the games are close and the girls are having fun, that’s all that matters,’’ he said.

Sam Boyles can be reached at samuel.boyles@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @samboylesglobe.