As Saturday dawned in Oklahoma City and Broken Arrow, Okla., it was do-or-die for 10 teams still with a chance for a title as the ASA/USA GOLD National Championships will be decided today.

Note: this post will be updated throughout the day so check in frequently!

 

18U Gold

In the 18U GOLD division, the Wagner’s Gold-Dunn team knocked off the Lil Rebels for the second time today to capture the National Championship:

• Wagers Gold-Dunn 7, Lil Rebels 2 (NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!)
  The ASA/USA 18U GOLD National Champs used three pitchers—Lele Ocasio (2014, Florida), Chase Cassady (2015, Ole Miss) and Ashtin Adkins (2014, Indian River State College) to hold the Rebels to four hits while the offensive production was spread to five players who knocked in runs led by Brittney McGuire who went 2-for-3 with two RBI.

Wagners Gold-Dunn and Lil Rebels played earlier Saturday morning for the top spot in the winner’s bracket:

• Wagners Gold-Dunn 4, Lil Rebels 0
  Wagners came out on top 4-0 as Ocasio once again shined at the plate and in the circle.  She hit a first inning home run and doubled in the third while going the distance, pitching a seven-hit shutout and striking out three.

The Lil Rebels 96 team escaped with a Friday night 2-1 win over Beverly Hills-Demarini and Wagners Gold Dunn beat Houston Power Gold-Glowacz 9-1.

In the loser’s bracket there were two games took place Saturday am with Houston Power Gold-Glowacz and Beverly Bandits-DeMarini winning to set up a game at 10:30 am with the Bandits advancing to play the Lil Rebels who won to get a rematch against Wagners Gold Dunn which put them in the loser’s bracket in the first place… got all that?

Here’s how those teams advanced:

• Lil Rebels 1, Beverly Bandits-DeMarini 0
  The Lil Rebels dropped into the loser’s bracket but won its only game there to move into the championship game. Pitcher Dayton Yingling (2014, Detroit Mercy) was the key as she allowed only three hits and gave up just two walks in her 6 1/3 innings of shutout ball. The Rebels scored its only run in the sixth inning.
• Beverly Bandits-DeMarini 8, Houston Power Gold-Glowacz 5
  In one of the most exciting games of the week, the Bandits and Power went to ILB and in the 8th inning Taran Alvelo (2015, Washington) broke the game open with a grand slam.
• Beverly Bandits-DeMarini 3, Southern Force 18 Gold 0
  It was scoreless until the top of the 7th inning when the Bandits put three on the board thanks to a key error (Southern Force had three)–none of the runs were earned. Taran Alvelo and Megan Good (2014, James Madison) combined on a four-hit shutout.
• Houston Power Gold-Glowacz 2, St. Louis Chaos-Beatty 1
  The Chaos got on the board first with a run in the third, but Houston Power took the lead for good in the fourth when Izzy Rollo and Kaitlyn Slack hit RBI singles. The Power only had three hits on the day but made them count.

 

16U Gold

In Broken Arrow, there were four teams battling in the morning… here’s the results of the games so far (as of 10:45 am CST):

• TN Fury (’97) ?, Tulsa Elite (’98) ? (“if” game will decide the National Championship!)
  TBD
• TN Fury (’97) 11, Tulsa Elite (’98) 9
  What looked to be a laugher turned into an extra-inning nail-biter as TN Fury 97 trailed the entire game and as much as 7-2 in the 6^th inning to Tulsa Elite 97 but, down to its last strike, pulled even on a A Coppinger single to tie it at 7-7 and went on to win 11-9 in the bottom of the 8^th.
• Tulsa Elite (’98) 9, TN Fury 5 (winner’s bracket)
  Hayleigh Gavan, Paige Westover and Elexis Watson each knocked in two runs and the Elite 98 team blew the game open with six runs in the 3rd inning to advance to the title game.  Westover had three singles and Gavan hit a home run as part of the 13-hit onslaught.
• TN Fury 98 vs. Indy Dreams-Mont (loser’s bracket)
  In a game that had four lead changes, the Fury scored twice in the top of the seventh with two outs to go ahead 3-2 on a walk and three consecutive singles, but the Dreams roared back in the bottom of the seventh to tie it on an RBI single by Cathy Skaggs. In the bottom of the 8th, Sydney Casteel completed a great 2-for-4, two RBI game by knocking in the winning run.

The Tulsa Elite run-ruled TX Impact Gold-Elder 16-4 Friday night and the TN Fury 97 topped Aces Express-Clements 5-3. Both of these teams are guaranteed a top 3 finish since they’re coming from the winner’s bracket.

The championship game is set for 2 pm CST on Arrowhead Field with an “if” game scheduled for 4 pm local time if necessary.