It’s been a long week at the Louisville Slugger Independence Day Tournament in Boulder and the Colorado Fireworks and Sparkler Tournaments held in Aurora, Westminster and other sites in Northern Colorado.

Now, the championship game is in sight for eight teams at each tourney and below we highlight how the quarterfinalists made it to the final day of competition…

 

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BOULDER 18U

The round of 16 that capped off the final games of the night in Boulder was a list of many of the top teams in club softball at the 18U level.

From California you had elite teams comprising half the bracket including the Corona Angels, Explosion, Grapettes, Irvine Sting, Lady Magic, OC Batbusters-Haning, So Cal Choppers and the Sorcerers.

Outside the Golden State you had the other eight from across the nation: Birmingham Thunderbolts (Ala.), Beverly Bandits (Ill.), East Cobb Bullets (Ga.), Finesse (Mich.), Illinois Chill, Originals Gold (Mo.), St. Louis Chaos (Mo.) and Wichita Mustangs (Kan.).

But half would go home Saturday and when the quarterfinals list was finalized, here’s who made it to play another day… in this case to take the field at 8:30 Sunday morning:

Quarterfinals

• Game 1: Sorcerer vs. Birmingham Thunderbolts
• Game 2: Originals Gold vs. Explosion
• Game 3: East Cobb Bullets vs. Corona Angels-Marty
• Game 4: OC Batbusters-Haning vs. St. Louis Chaos

* Sorcerer Gold cruised by the Finesse 11-3 and set up an interesting battle with the Birmingham Thunderbolts who held on to beat Lady Magic 1-0. We know all about pitcher Johanna Grauer and shortstop Kylee Perez, two of the best players in the country at their positions, but the Bolts are loaded with talent also included Meghan Gregg, an infielder going to Tennessee this fall and catcher Courtney Shea, daughter of head coach Richard Shea, who’s headed to Auburn where her father played football.

* In what would have to be somewhat of a surprise, the Originals Gold out of Missouri knocked off the Beverly Bandits in a tight 3-2 win and will face Explosion led by Oklahoma-bound pitcher Brittany Finney, who pitched a great game in the 2-1 over the Grapettes, another excellent Calif. squad. Watch out for the Explosion’s Angie Vasquez as well—the Loyola Marymount signee hit her fifth home run of the week in an earlier game today and is in the zone.

* The East Cobb Bullets blanked the Wichita Mustangs 6-0 to advance to the quarters where they will face the Corona Angels-Marty team, which run-ruled the Irvine Sting 11-1. This will be interesting match-up of opposite coast teams if only because they faced each other two weeks ago at the So Cal A’s Invitational in Los Alamitos, Calif. (the Bullets won). This game could go either way but matches strength vs. strength in Kelly Barnhill pitching for the Bullets going against a powerful offensive that the Angels always seem to field.

* The last quarterfinal will feature the team everyone has dubbed as the favorite to win it all, the OC Batbusters-Haning team, which knocked off the So Cal Choppers 8-2 to meet the St. Louis Chaos which eliminated the Illinois Chill Gold team 7-5. While the Batbusters can beat you in every aspect of the game, including offense with pure hitters like Amanda Lorenz (Florida), Alyssa Palomino (Arizona) and Syd Romero (Oklahoma), don’t go to sleep on Chaos which has excellent pitching in Danielle Baumgartner (Missouri) and Maddie Seifert (Penn State).

The two semis will take place at 10:30 am Sunday with the final slated to being at 1:00.

 

COLORADO FIREWORKS/SPARKLER 18U

The Super 64 of the 18U division was finalized in Aurora in the last eight games of the night.

Those games had a strong Lone Star State flavor with the Texas Glory, Texas Impact Gold-Jackson, Texas Firecrackers DFW, Texas Bombers Gold, Texas Sudden Impact Gold-Dutton and Texas Aces Express Gold teams all battling for a quarterfinal appearance Sunday at 8 am at the Aurora Sports Park where the rest of the Super 64 will be held.

There were also three Firecracker teams – the Lakewood Firecrackers, Texas Firecrackers DFW and Firecrackers-Rico—that represented well the organization that Tony Rico has spread to several states.

When the dust settled in the lights of the Fireworks/Sparkler games, here’s who made it to the quarters:

Quarterfinals

• Game 1: Firecrackers-Rico vs. OC Batbusters Gonzalez
• Game 2: Texas Impact Gold-Jackson vs Louisville Lady Sluggers
• Game 3: Oklahoma Diamond Girls Gold vs. Gold Coast Hurricanes
• Game 4: Oklahoma Exclusive Gold vs. Texas Glory

* The Firecrackers-Rico team eliminated the Texas Bombers Gold 5-2 and will face the OC Batbusters Gonzalez team (formerly Team Mizuno) which knocked off the Nemesis Elite Gold (Calif.) 9-7. Tony Rico’s team always seems to play well at this tournament, perhaps because of the inspiration the team gets from WWII veteran Harry Runtzel.

* The Impact Gold-Jackson, which knocked off the Lakewood Firecrackers (Calif.) 5-4, plays the Louisville Lady Sluggers after the Kentucky team defeated the Texas Aces Express Gold 10-1.  The Lady Sluggers have five players going to the hometown Louisville Cardinals including excellent 2015 infielder Lillie Goetz.

* The Oklahoma Diamond Girls Gold beat the AZ Hotshots Gold-Davis 4-3 Saturday night setting up a quarterfinal match-up with the Gold Coast Hurricanes (Fla.) which beat the Texas Firecrackers DFW 4-0.  The Hurricanes Marty Cooper has to be happy how his team has come together after only starting tournament play two weeks ago.

* In the final quarterfinal, the Oklahoma Exclusive Gold earned its way after beating the strong Texas Sudden Impact Gold-Dutton team 4-3 and will meet Texas Glory, which knocked off Bownet-Ashley/Creamer (Calif.) 7-4. Kevin Shelton’s Glory team is playing well and pitcher Mo Garcia is emerging this summer as one of the top pitchers at the club level.