The PGF 14U National Championship was decided Friday night in Fullerton, Calif. and had everything you could want: great pitching, offense, sparkling defense and a hold-your-breath ending that went to the last strike.
In the end, Team Mizuno Campbell pulled a thrilling, bottom-of-the-seventh win 3-2 over the OC Batbusters – McNee squad despite falling behind 2-0 in the top of the first.
Oklahoma-bound pitcher Mariah Lopez looked out of sorts early and her Head Coach, Mark Campbell, believes he knows why.
“Mariah came out and struggled early and I think it’s because she’s pitched so money innings this week,” Campbell said in the dugout after the win. “She said she woke up and felt like she was hit by a train. But she took an ice bath, stretched out and eventually loosened up and pitched well. The only thing she couldn’t do was get their leadout hitter (Jenny Holcomb) out.”
The Batbusters jumped out to a 2-0 lead on consecutive singles in the top of the first after Holcomb started the game with an infield single off Lopez.
With two outs Dylinn Stancil hit a flair just over the second baseman’s glove into shallow right field and the throw to the plate was late allowing Holcomb, who went 4-for-4 and collected 15 hits in the tournament, to go to second.
Isabella Berouty then bounced a ball up the middle to score Stancil and the inning looked like it could get away from Lopez as Arianna Burns rolled a ball up the middle to put runners on first and third. However, Burns was caught stealing second to end the threat and keep the damage to 2-0.
The Batbusters looked like they could again extend their lead in the top of the third after the first two runners got on.
Holcomb reached base for the second time as she benefited from a bad bounce to shortstop that was ruled a hit and Hayleigh Weissenbach reached on a bunt base hit. Lopez, however, buckled down and shut down the side on two flyouts to right field and a strikeout.
Team Mizuno’s Ashlee Snyder hit a double to right that outfielder Wayleigh Weissenbach barely missed catching and it ooked like Snyder would easily score on a subsequent shot to right center, but Holcomb showed she just wasn’t an offensive force as she went horizontal to snare the apparent RBI double.
It took until the bottom of the fifth for Mizuno to cut into the Batbuster lead. Schulyler Broussard stroked a one-out double that rolled to the wall in left center and she crossed the plate when Alyssa Barrera hit a two-out RBI single that pulled Mizuno within a run at 2-1.
Kaitlin Buff pitched a great game, but appeared to be getting tired heading into the last few innings. She looked like she would get leadoff hitter Vanessa Taukeiaho out in the sixth, but the Mizuno slugger reached on an error by the second baseman that rolled under her glove.
After a sacrifice put Taukeiaho on second, Dejah Mulipola hit a deep shot to center that Holcomb was unable to pull in. The ball bounced off her glove plating Taukeiaho to even the score at 2-2 and giving Team Mizuno new life.
Mizuno seemed to have the momentum and in the bottom of the seventh saw Schuyler Broussard lead off with a walk, leading to a pitching change as Haleigh Leusch came in for the Batbusters.
A sacrifice bunt put Broussard on second with one out and walks to Alyssa Barrera walked and Jocelyn Alo loaded the bases with one out.
Vanessa Taukeiaho went to a full count with two outs and hit a fly down the right field line that looked like it might win it, but the shot drifted foul.
Leusch then three an inside pitch that was a called third strike and it looked like she and the Batbusters might extend the game into extra innings.
However, the exact same situation repeated itself with Ashlee Snyder, who ran the count full before watching ball four come in low and push Broussard across for the winning run, 3-2, and a national championship for Team Mizuno.
“I just wanted to help the team win,” Snyder said. “If it was by a hit or a walk, I was just looking to help get the run in. I saw the ball coming in low and held off.”
Coach Campbell credited Snyder for her discipline at the plate.
“I’m not sure five months ago she would have held off of that pitch,” the Mizuno head coach said. “It just goes to show how she’s grown and worked hard in that time in her hitting.”
So how will Coach Campbell look back on this team down the road.
“I think tonight they found themselves,” he explained. “It took until tonight for this team to get an identity. We’d come into big games and find a way to lose and not a way to win. But I always thought if this team went into an alley it would be the one to come out, because they battle.”
“Tonight we saw how they found a way to win and become champions.”