Friday morning’s winner’s bracket games started without some familiar California faces, including So Cal Athletics Myers McNee, OC Bandits, and the Corona Angels.

Instead, three of the four unbeaten teams were from outside the Golden State, including two teams representing SEC country squaring off against each other.

By the time the day was over a nearly-miraculously championship game was set—astounding in that both 16U Premier finalists—the Tampa Bay Mustangs and Beverly Bandits DeMarini—each lost their first game and had to battle back from the Loser’s Bracket and, with each game a must-win, took 11 and 10 games each, respectively.

The Mustangs had a play-in game which they lost making their journey even tougher.

That was at the end of the day as the Mustangs beat the Birmingham Thunderbolts twice in IF games and the Bandits defeated the Ohana Tigers twice also to advance.

By 7 pm PST, after a long day of battle, a team from the South did make it to the 16U game, but early on it looked like it would either a team from Alabama or a team from Georgia.

The Birmingham Thunderbolts and Georgia Impact Jeffreys—who between the two have 13 players committed to SEC schools—continued their long-standing friendly rivalry Friday morning, meeting for the 28th time in the teams’ history.

Of the 27 previous match-ups, the Impact had only won once. With the winner’s bracket on the line, the Impact were looking to grab their second all-time win from the Bolts.

The Bolts jumped out to an early one-run lead in the first thanks to an error and their hot-hitting right fielder, Alex Wilcox (2017, Mississippi State). Wilcox hit a hard liner to right that the right fielder misplayed, allowing the ball to roll to the fence, giving Wilcox a triple and scoring Jenna Olszewski (2017, Auburn) who had reached on an error earlier in the inning.

Wilcox has been on a tear this week, with three home runs and the last four RBIs for the Bolts.

“I’m just seeing the ball really well right now,” Wilcox explained. “She was throwing [me] predominately drop balls, so I moved up in the box to catch it before it broke.”

Georgia Impact-Jeffreys knocked on the door in the fourth with the bases loaded and one out, but the Bolts’ hurler, Kayla Boseman ( 2018, Mississippi State) retired the next two batters to get out of the jam.

The Impact again had a opportunity in the sixth with what would have been a lead-off double by Ashley Morgan (2017, Tennessee), but she tried to stretch it to a triple and was gunned down at third. The Bolts held on to their one-run lead to win the game, even though the Impact left 11 runners on base.

When asked about his team’s missed opportunities, Impact coach Rick Jeffreys explained, “Those are opportunities when you need to step up and make your destiny. That’s how you define yourself as a player. You have to seize those opportunities.”

Immediately after their loss, the Impact battled the Beverly Bandits Demarini in an elimination game.

The Bandits had clawed their way out of the bottom of the loser’s bracket after having lost to their sister team, the Beverly Bandits-Tyrell, in the first game of bracket play.

Having won their last seven games at that point, including a second matchup to eliminate their sister Bandits team the game before the Impact, the Bandits came out swinging.

They exploded for a five-run top half of the second inning and never looked back.

Ashton Slone (2017, Miami (Ohio)) led the charge with four RBIs and a two-run home run.

Immediately following Slone’s home run, Hannah File (2017, James Madison) blasted a solo home run off a camera in center field.

Megan McMenemy (2017, Ohio State) added two RBIs and Sara Jubas (2017, James Madison Dukes) added another RBI in the contest.

Megan Beaubien (2017, Michigan), who has started every game for the Bandits at the PGF Nationals, allowed only one run in the contest.