For many teams, playing in the Colorado Fireworks Championship Game against the team that beat you just days before on national TV—in walk-off fashion no less—might be intimidating.

For the Texas Glory players, it only made them pull down their caps, tighten their belts, lay on the eye black a bit thicker and play with renewed determination and grit.

Last Wednesday, the Glory fell to the Firecrackers-Rico team 4-3 in the “Challenge of National Powers” broadcast on the CBS Sports Network, the same Firecrackers team that has dominated the Colorado Fireworks tourney the last six years.

But on Sunday, the Kevin Shelton-coached team completed an 11-0 run in the actual tournament games by stopping the Firecrackers 3-1 behind a strong pitching performance by Mo Garcia who tossed seven strong innings and allowing only one run, a first inning solo homer.

The North Texas signee scattered seven hits but came up big time and time again while throwing only 57 pitches. Garcia’s victory put her at 7-0 for the week with two saves and in 40-plus innings she only allowed six walks.

Offensively, Glory only had four hits in the win, a far cry from their offensive onslaught in every other game, but still made them count.

Shortstop Madison Montgomery, a 2015 committed to Oklahoma State, had two doubles, an RBI and scored a run while infielder Madison Groppe, a 2014 signee with Baylor, singled and scored on Montgomery’s third-inning double that gave the victors a lead they would never relinquish.

Amazingly, in all 11 games the tournament champs only trailed for a total of four innings with three of those coming in one game. It helps when your team hits .353 collective with 12 home runs and 28 doubles.

And most of the games weren’t close—there was only a single one-run win—as the Glory scored 91 runs while allowing 30.

“In general,” says Shelton looking back over the successful week of play, “we would either score early and keep scoring or we have big out bursts that tended to put games out of reach.”

Up until the final–through pool play, double elimination and the championship bracket–the offense was clicking on all cylinders and didn’t score less than seven runs in any of the games.

In the semi-final match-up, Glory knocked off the always strong Gold Coast Hurricanes 10-4 although it would take until the fourth to put any runs on the board. Infielder Ariel Ortiz (2014, Texas State) hit a solo homer, but a couple of errors in the fifth allowed the Hurricanes to take the lead 2-1.  The Glory responded in the 7^th with a nine-run outburst aided by a few Hurricane miscues which put the game out of reach.  Pitcher Erin Riding (2015, Iowa) went the distance allowing just two earned runs late as part of her 4-0 week.

The 7-6 quarterfinal win over OK Exclusive saw Glory score early and often and hang on to win.  Montgomery had 3 RBI with a home run and Riding came on to get the save, shutting the Exclusive out for the final 2 2/3 inning.

The Glory kicked off the Single Elimination Championship Bracket (Round of 16) with a 7-4 win over Bownet that was a back and forth affair only settled when the Texas team scored late to notch the win. After taking a two-run lead in the top of the first, faulty defense allowed Bownet to score 3 runs and take the lead.  The Glory responded in their next at-bat tying the game 3-3 before power-hitting infielder Daneilla Chavez (2014, Kansas) homered in the 4^th to give Glory the lead back.  Bownet responded with one in the fourth to knot the score again, but in the top of the fourth the Glory scored to take the lead back and then added two more in the fifth to close out the scoring.

“The Bownet game was a 8 pm game,” says Coach Shelton, “and the OK Exclusive game was an 8 am game.  Every team had the same schedule so every team was pretty tired on Sunday morning and it showed.”

Along with the dominant pitching, the hitting was stellar. Here are some of the noteworthy performances:

• Ariel Ortiz lead the club over the week hitting .397 with four HRs and two doubles, knocking in a team high 14.  She slugged .818.
• Daniella Chavez hit four HRs and two doubles with 11 RBI.  She hit .375 and slugged .958.
• Madison Montgomeryhit .387 with seven doubles, driving in 10 and scoring 14 times
• IF/OF Taylor Lynch (2015, Oklahoma State), typically the lead off hitter, batted .379 with an OB% of .471.  She collected 11 hits and scored 10 times
• OF Morgan Turkoly and UT Madison Yannetti (2014, Arkansas) hit .344 and .333 respectively.  They each hit four doubles with Yannetti adding six RBI and Turkoly four.

The only downside to the championship week was a pair of injuries that may impact the team over the next month.

One of the team’s top young players, IF Maddison “Crash” Kettler, a strong 2016 Hot 100 candidate who has committed to Baylor, got hit in the ribs in a practice game Monday night verus the Louisville Sluggers.

“At best, she has badly bruised ribs,” says Shelton. “It took her out for the tourney and maybe the Triple Crown Nationals (in Atlanta July 14-17). It was a big loss.”

The other injury came to Morgan Turkoly, who hurt her ankle in the championship game.

“We don’t have a diagnosis yet, but we have probably lost her for a bit as well,” says the coach.

 

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Here are recaps of the games leading up to the Round of 16:

 

Pool Play

Arizona Storm – Brun (11-3)
Glory plated five runs in the fifth highlighted by a two-run double from UT/P Annelise Oswalt (2015, Texas Tech).  Ariel Ortiz collected three hits, including a home run.  Glory never trailed scoring three in the 3^rd, going on to n 11-3 win.

Bombers Gold – South (8-0)
Glory scored seven runs in the fourth inning and won 8-0 in five innings.  UT/P Kaylee Isenburg (2015, Northwestern State) homered.  Mauri Jamele (2015, Wichita State) drove in two RBI with a double.  Carley Haizlip (2015, Arkansas), IF Sarah Green (2015, Samford) and Taylor each added RBI singles.  Erin Riding pitched a complete game shutout, a two-hitter.

 

Pool Play (games that seeded the bracket)

Texas Peppers (9-7)
Catcher Aubree Turbeville (2015, McNeese State) hit her first homer of the summer to give Glory the lead in the third.  OF Erika Zimmer (2014, Missouri State) followed with a triple and was knocked in by a Taylor Lynch single.  Glory fell behind for one of the few times in the event, giving up three runs in the bottom of the third.  Kaylee Isenburg helped Glory respond in the fourth with a three-run bomb.  In the fifth, the top of the order delivered four more runs, pushing the lead to 9-3.  A late inning surge by the good hitting Peppers team closed the gap to 9-7 before Monqiue Garcia game in to shut the door and collect the save.

Arizona Hotshots (11-3)
Glory, again, had a big outburst in the fifth scoring 5 times.  Daniella Chavez hit a two-run homer and Taylor Lynch and Madison Montgomery each drove in a run with singles.  Monqiue Garcia tossed a two-hitter and allowed no earned runs.

 

Double Elimination Bracket

Firecrackers DFW (7-1)
Glory got loose early scoring 3 runs in the first and four runs in the second.  In the first a bases clearing double from Madison Yannetti got things going. In the second inning Ariel Ortiz hit a two-run home run and RBI double from Montgomery.  Garcia threw six strong innings, allowing no earned runs.

Texas Kaos (9-1)
Glory scored three in the third, fifth and six innings and never trailed.  Ariel Ortiz went 3-for-3 including a homer.  Montgomery had two hits, two RBI and scored 3 times.  Erin Riding earned the win allowing just one earned run over 4 2/3’s.

Aces Express (10-0)
A tight ball game got out of hand in the sixth when Glory exploded for seven runs in the top of the frame when Chavez blasted a three-run bomb to right center.  A group of singles and walks later Glory had a seven run lead.  They tacked on three more in the seventh including Chavez second HR in two innings, to close it out.  Garcia threw just 60 pitches in the shutout.