It was a typically beautiful Southern California summer night with a slight breeze comforting the more than 1,000 fans who attended the PGF 16U National Championship at Cal State Fullerton Friday night (over 1,300 attended the earlier 14U title game).
As cool as the night air was— the game started shortly before twilight and was played mostly under the stadium lights—the pitching was equally hot.
Oregon-bound Miranda Elish was the key difference maker in the game, scattering five hits for the Beverly Bandits as the team from Chicago defeated the home county OC Batbuster Campbell team 2-0 in a rematch of a game played less than a month ago.
In that contest, a 9-0 win for the Bandits in the semis of the Boulder tournament—they would go on to win the tournament—the losing Batbusters didn’t have Julie McDonald, a 2015 grad who’s headed to San Diego State, and who was a major force in the Batbuster winning streak this weak despite pitching with an injured hand.
In Friday’s championship game, McDonald had seven strikeouts and the two runs were unearned as her defense committed four errors behind her. Overall, she was impressive and against most teams would have won, but even without the mistakes, it appeared Elish wasn’t going to let this game get away.
“I felt great heading into the game,” Elish said during the post-game celebration. “I wasn’t nervous, in fact I was the opposite, I was energized and felt I had my pitches working. I was busting hitters inside and then working away.”
“We’ve been working for this national championship all year,” she continued. “We’re not like a team, we’re more sisters, and we felt this game was going to be ours no matter what.”
For the first half of the game, it looked like it was anyone’s to win—or lose, if you factor in the total seven errors committed by both teams.
McDonald and the Batbusters kept pace with Elish and the Bandits until the bottom of the fourth, when the visitors from Illinois—who actually were the home team in this game–would get the only runs they’d need.
The inning started with a minor controversy as ball four to catcher Michal Cunningham caromed out of play and a discussion ensued if she should have gone to second.
A call to the UIC (Umpire in Chief) decided she would stay at first, but Cunningham made it to second eventually anyway when Lizzie Seymour hit a flair over third, putting runners on first and second with no outs.
Elish then helped her own cause when she hit a deep shot to left center that was tracked down by the centerfielder, but dropped and ruled an error allowing Cunningham to cross the plate for the first run of the game.
Leadoff hitter Cambry Arnold then followed with an infield single that bounced off McDonald’s glove to load the bases.
Alexis Mack hit a two bouncer to short and was able to beat the throw to first and force home the second run giving the Bandits a 2-0 lead.
Elish’s only major threat came when the Batbusters got two runners on in the bottom of the sixth as Kennedy Clark hit a deep infield single and Nikki Fry’s bouncer to short was bobbled.
The Bandit pitcher, however, was able to induce a flyout to left field and a grounder back to the pitcher to shut the door on a potential Batbuster rally.
“This team was built by Bill Conroy to win a national championship,” an energized Bandit Head Coach Jenn “J.T.” Tyrrell said. “The are a lot of talented girls who could play for Bill’s 18U team, but he wanted them to get the experience of winning. There is speed, offense, defense and the intangibles on this team—they support and care for each other –and we work to give them not just softball experiences, but life experiences.”
“They weren’t nervous, although we looked like it on defense in spots, but we’ve played like this before. We settle down and play our game, which is what we’ve done all year. We won Boulder and tonight the National Championship, it was the goal of the girls all year and they’ve realized what they have been shooting for ever since this team was formed.”