A year ago, pitcher Lele Ocasio pitched a strong game in the ASA/USA 18U Gold National Championship in Clearwater, Fla. but the Sunshine State native couldn’t quite bring the trophy home as Wagners Gold-Dunn fell to the Atlanta Vipers-Giles team 3-2.

Add to that the last two Florida Class 7A high school state championships where Ocasio’s Harmony High team lost both years 1-0 to St. Thomas Aquinas (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) and you can see why today’s National Championship means so much to her and the team.

You couldn’t pick a better ending for the 1^st Team All-American pitcher/utility player who will be a freshman at the Univ. of Florida in a few short weeks.

Saturday afternoon in Oklahoma City, Ocasio was her usual double threat self, going 2-for-4 at the plate while pitching four innings where she gave up two runs and put her team in a position to win 7-2 over the Las Vegas Rebels.

For the tournament, Lele hit .543 with 19 hits and 13 runs scored—all team highs. She also went 5-0 in the circle with 41 K’s in 40 1/3 innings with a 0.87 ERA.

But, as was the case all week long, Wagners Gold-Dunn won because it wasn’t only Ocasio making things happen. In the final game today, five Wagners players knocked in runs and Ocasio, despite her pair of hits, wasn’t one of them.

Brittney McGuire singled in the first and scored—part of the three runs put in the 1st inning by Wagners Gold—and she doubled in the 4^th to knock in one of her two RBI on the day.

Kelli Tidwell also had a key double in the 4^th which scored McGuire and pushed the lead to 7-2 which held up thanks to Chase Cassady (2015, Ole Miss) and Ashtin Adkins (2014, Indian River State College) who followed Ocasio to the circle.

The trio of pitchers held the Rebels to only four hits on the day and made the final push to the end of the title win almost anti-climatic.

It was especially sweet, however, for Ocasio, who, after three tough one-run losses in title games, will savor this championship for a long, long time.