And then there were two… an amazing week got even more amazing on Friday as two teams were left standing after some improbable developments happened.
After all the smoke cleared Friday night in Huntington Beach, Calif., the PGF 18U Premier National Championship match-ups were set as the So Cal A’s will meet Team Mizuno- Stich at 3 pm PST Saturday for the right to claim the No. 1 spot in the nation.
Here’s how the two SoCal teams made it…
A’s Skate Easily into Championship
The A’s came in into the day undefeated and behind the nearly flawless pitching of Delanie Gourley (Florida, 2013), who threw a shutout last night with 17 strikeouts and a one hitter this morning, it wasn’t a surprise that when the A’s faced the Texas Glory-Shelton squad at 5 pm tonight it would be a tough road for the Lone Star State team to defeat the two time defending champs.
Texas had been getting stellar pitching from Sydney Littlejohn (Alabama, 2013), but the roof caved in the third inning when So Cal put nine runs on the board and the game was called in the fifth.
For her part, Gourley went 4-0 this week pitching three innings and allowing only two hits and a walk while striking out six.
That one earned run, by the way, upped her ERA from 0.25 to 0.45.
Slugfest That Will Be Long Remembered
On the other side of the bracket, the OC Batbusters were the undefeated team in the bracket and only had to win one of two games against Team Mizuno-Stith to advance into the title game to meet the A’s.
That “only win one” wasn’t going to be easy and Head Coach Gary Haning knew it, saying earlier in the day the Batbuster offense would have to step up and be as good as the defense and pitching of Taylor McQuillin had been.
“We’ll go as far as Taylor takes us,” he said in the afternoon, “and hopefully she won’t hit the wall.”
One big advantage the Batbusters had was they were the more rested team as Team Mizuno would have to play five games on Friday and win all five to advance.
After losing to Texas Glory-Shelton Thursday night 11-9, a five game winning streak in one day looked like a tall order, but Mike Stith’s team won their first three against the KC Peppers, the Firecrackers-Rico and the Beverly Bandits to get the right to face the Batbusters.
In the first game, both of Haning’s fears about the offense sputtering and McQuillin having to pitch so many innings were realized.
Team Mizuno pitcher Kaylee Carlson (North Carolina, 2014) pitched a gem, shutting down the Batbuster bats, allowing only three hits over seven innings to lead Mizuno to a 3-0 win while McQuillin did well also, giving up only two earned runs but that was enough to give her the first loss of the tournament.
The “If” game would be a classic.
Team Mizuno jumped out to a 4-0 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth, but the Batbusters would battle back and score two in the sixth.
Down 4-2 heading into their final at-bats, the Batbsuters would then claw back to tie it in the bottom of the seventh as Sierra Hyland (Cal Poly SLO) hit a solo home run with one out and McKenna Arriola’s (Oregon State) grounder to second took a bad hop and allowed Karsyn Guzman (CSUB) to score from second.
With one out in the top of the eighth, Team Mizuno catcher Morganne Flores (Washington, 2015) hit a short fly to center that allowed outfielder Alyssa Palomino (Arizona, 2015) to come home and put the score at 5-4.
The question was, Would Kaylee Carlson have enough in reserve to pull out one last inning and, conversely, could the Batbusters make one more final run to come back and win?
The Batbusters looked like they would at least tie the game when outfielder Ashley Clark-Johnson (Nevada) would get to third with no outs and Carlson appeared she might be tiring as she was working her 26th inning of the day.
But she reached back and pulled out enough to record a strikeout and then came the play of the tournament (at least so far).
With a 3-2 count, infielder Ruby Rivera (Illinois) hit a fly to right field that Mizuno outfielder Justine McLean (Florida, 2013) caught and then threw home to nail Clark-Johnson to end the game and put Team Mizuno in the title contest.
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Championship Game Prediction: on paper, this looks like it will be the A’s fourth straight title… they’re rested, have the best pitcher in the tournament in Gourley and the offense is stellar up and down the lineup (in the final win Friday, everyone but one player had at least one hit).
Team Mizuno-Stith, on the other hand, has to be drained physically and emotionally after such a taxing day and exhilarating finish to the day.
Still, this team has shown it can come back and has great character and resolve and if she gets going, Carlson can be as dominating as Gourley. Plus, how can you count out a team that beat the Firecrackers, Beverly Bandits and OC Batbusters (twice) all in one day.
The heart says Mizuno can make one more big push, but the head says Bruce Richardson’s team is on a quest.
We call this one So Cal A’s 5, Team Mizuno-Stith 3…