The USA Softball JO Cup is down to the last two days in the double elimination format at the event held in Chino Hills, Calif. with eight teams still alive heading into today. Tomorrow, the champion will be crowned at Mt. SAC in Walnut, Calif.

We’ll be blogging daily with news and notes around the event, so be sure to check in periodically!

CLICK HERE to sign-up/log in to see all the JO Cup games running today through Saturday!

***

FINAL THREE

Not surprisingly, the Wichita Mustangs won the Winner’s Bracket but it didn’t come easily.

The St. Louis Chaos–with probably the deepest pitching staff at the JO Cup with Maddie Seifert (Penn State),

Danielle Baumgartner (Missouri) and Brittany Nimmo (NC State)–pushed the Mustangs to ITB and showed they can beat anybody on any day.

The two teams left in the Loser’s Bracket, Chaos and the EC Bullets, both lost to the Mustangs and both were in the games they lost.  The Bullets led yesterday 3-2 before the Mustangs went on a roll and won 6-3.

So the 9 am game will feature the Bullets vs. the Chaos with the winner playing the Mustangs at 11 am and, if needed, an IF game at 1 pm.

You’d have to say the Mustangs will be tough to beat twice, but anything can happen… it’s why they play!

---

Friday Results:

There were eight games scheduled for today, here’s how they ended up:

• Wichita Mustangs 3, American Pastime 0
• St. Louis Chaos 5, Texas Blaze-Slimp 4
• Wichita Mustangs 2, St. Louis Chaos 1 ITB
• EC Bullets-Schnute 2, Aces Express 0
• Texas Sudden Impact 6, Louisiana Voodoo 5
• EC Bullets 6, Texas Blaze 0
• American Pastime 1, Sudden Impact 0
• EC Bullets 4, American Pastime 0

AND THEN THERE WERE EIGHT

At the start of the week there were 28 teams playing for the USA Softball JO Cup National Championship. As of Friday there were eight still standing, with four each in the Winner’s and Loser’s brackets:

Winner’s Bracket:

• Wichita Mustangs
• American Pastime Gold
• Texas Blaze-Gold
• St. Louis Chaos-Beatty

Loser’s Bracket:

• EC Bullets-Schnute
• Aces Express
• Louisiana Voodoo
• Texas Sudden Impact

---

COACH’S ROLL CALL

There aren’t a ton of college coaches at the JO Cup simply because the event is for 18U teams and many of the players are committed and also because colleges are looking at younger ages.

But… there were some significant names and faces at the event on Thursday including Ralph Weekly of Tennessee and Tim Walton of Florida.

Coach Weekly was dressed from head to toe in “USA” apparel as he is on the USA Softball Player Committee and has long been associated with the program going back to the 1990’s before he became the Vols head coach. Weekly was a part of the 1996 USA Women’s National Team that won the first Gold medal in the sport’s history.

Tim Walton was there as he is an assistant coach on the Women’s team and is part of the group that is looking at players this week for consideration down the road for future National Teams.

Another coach who was there—and she seems to be everywhere to her credit—was Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso. She’s not tied into the USA Softball program directly, so she was probably there recruiting and was watching the Mustangs vs. EC Bullets game. I would guess she was looking at 2019 catcher Julia Cottrill, one of the top young catchers in the game.

Regarding Cottrill, I spoke to her father, Jeff, earlier this week and the coach for the Mustangs 16U team said he said he asked Julia this summer about the recruiting process and what she wanted to do.

“She told me, ‘Dad, I just want to play ball. I don’t want to worry about that right now.’”

JO CUP HAS ONE OF THE NATION’S TOP BASEBALL PLAYERS

Speaking of the Mustangs—still the strong favorite to win the JO Cup–if you were to watch Ryleigh Buck, the third baseman for the team, swallow grounders like a vacuum cleaner and then throw smoothly to first, you’d likely hear sooner or later, “she plays like a baseball player.”

That’s because, simply, she is one.

Her career on the “other” diamond started last December when Ashley Bratcher, the Director of the USA Baseball Women’s National Team (WNT) was having a casual conversation with Wichita Mustangs head coach Mark Griggs at the NFCA Convention in December.

Bratcher asked the coach if he had any players or knew of any softball talent that could play baseball.

Griggs said he thought about point five seconds and said, ‘Yea I do.’

Griggs mentioned Buck, but first had to get another opinion. He went to Kevin Hooper, the Manager of the Wichita Wingnuts, a Double A, non-affiliated minor league team, and the two agreed Buck would be a perfect candidate.

The two took it to the family and Ryleigh enthusiastically said, ‘Yea, let’s try.”

So why Ryleigh?

“Ever since I went to Coach Griggs as an eight grade player, he joked about how I play like a baseball player and that my hands and transition are like a baseball player. Ironically, I had been working out with a baseball guy (Coach Hooper) on my fielding so when brought it up it made sense to try it.”

It was mid December and exactly a month until the tryouts would take place for the USA Women’s Baseball Team.

The talented 2016 infielder, who has committed to Central Florida for softball, went to work with Coach Hooper, strenuously trying to enhance her skills and not missing a day in the gym or on the field for the entire month except for Christmas Day.

A tryout was held in Houston where close to 80 players participated. Only 36 made the cut and Ryleigh was one of them. About the same time, USA Baseball WNT also had handpicked 18 girls try out for a Pan Am qualifier in the Dominican Republic and Buck made that cut as well.

That meant she got to go to Toronto for a three week tournament with the first week being games in the Cooperstown, N.Y area, a four game series against Japan the next week (they split 2-2) and the Pan Am Games in week 3.

The make-up of the roster was diverse—ranging from a 16-year-old to a seasoned 42-year-old player old enough to be a mother to some of the players, Ryleigh—one of three 17-year-olds on the team—one of them.

“Me being on the younger side I learned so much from the older players and their experiences,” Ryleigh explain. “On the field they’ve been playing so long and they kindly took me under their wing to teach me about the littlest things I didn’t know about. Off the field, I saw that these are amazing ladies who were eager to help prepare us younger players for college and jobs afterwards.”

The softball/baseball player said the disparity in age wasn’t a problem.

“I was kind of worried about the age difference and barriers it might present, but that wasn’t the case, it was the opposite as I realized there’s so much we have in common with them.”

Making the transition to baseball was challenging for two main reasons according to Buck.

“Of course the size of the ball, when I switch over it takes time to adjust to the grips, and then you have the change in time in softball where you have to field and throw cleanly. In baseball you have so much more time, you can set your feet and take that extra step that you can’t in softball.”

In the Pan Am Games, the team went 5-0 and Ryleigh, new to the game she was, mostly saw playing time as a pinch-runner. Still, it was an experience she’ll treasure all her life.

“For her in the most incredible thing she’s ever done,” says her father, T.D. Buck. “It was the teammates, the incredible athletes she was around and being able to wear ‘USA’ every day on her jersey.”

“When the flag goes up and the national anthem started, Ryleigh knew it was for her and teammates, it was just an incredible experience. I remember when the flag went up at the medal ceremony, it’s 10 times more special when it’s for your own daughter.”

Ryleigh whole-heartedly agreed.

“It was awesome, the best thing I’ve ever done,” she adds. “Playing for your country is the most amazing feeling, when you that uniform on was when it hit me that this was real life. It was crazy.”

Where she goes from here is uncertain, the next big event is in the fall of 2016, World Cup of Baseball. If she’s involved or not remains to be seen, but she’ll always have the six months that she got to play with a National Team–although for baseball, not softball—and she even has a Gold Medal to show for it.

“Oh yes, baseball is something I want to continue with. Since I was little I’ve loved softball, but there’s usually an end to it after college. I felt that it was meant to be (being in baseball) and I hope that I can continue after college and continue as long as I can play.”