Wow, what a wild first day of bracket play in the highest level of club softball competition—the PGF 18U Premier Nationals.

The day started at 8 am PST and was still going on almost 12 hours later and in between there was a lot of great softball and comprised every possible outcome—from walk-off home runs, to extra inning thrillers to pitching duels.

Here are some of the highlights…

 

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I’ll get to some of the more exciting, dramatic games in a minute but the most anticipated contest of the day—the first round match-up between two of the favorites, the OC Batbusters-Haning team and Beverly Bandits-Conroy—ended up being one-sided as the Batbusters won 6-0.

The atmosphere at the game was crazy, though—it was the most crowded I’ve ever seen a field at the Huntington Beach complex. There were a half dozen other club coaches there to watch as well as players from many other teams.

One cool thing was to see two pitchers who competed against each other earlier in the day, Haley Copeland of the So Cal A’s and Cayla Drotar of Carolina Elite, hanging out together as both are South Carolina commits (Haley is a 2014; Cayla a 2016).

There were typical of the interest this game generated… there were people lined up everywhere including all around the fence in the outfield. It was awesome to see and not surprising because these two teams are favorites to still be playing on Saturday.

What was cool for me was our No. 1 player in the 2014 Hot 100, third baseman Jenna Lilley (Oregon) was on the field as was the No. 1 player in the 2015 Hot 100, outfielder Amanda Lorenz (Florida). And there were about 100 other great players on both sides too (OK, that’s an exaggeration… maybe 50).

The game itself saw the Batbusters jump out to a pair of runs in the first and two more in the second to effectively put the game out of reach as pitcher Taylor McQuillin had her riseball working and allowed six hits in the six-inning game but no walks. She struck out eight and had a bases loaded situation later in the game but worked out of it.

Catcher Morganne Flores (2015, Washington) popped a home run off future teammate Taran Alvelo (2105, Washington) and went 2-for-3 as did shortstop McKenna Arriola (2014, Oregon State).

The Bandits’ ledger showed six different players getting hits and the defensive star of the game was Lilley who had several stellar plays at third.

If the Batbusters continue to play like this they’ll be tough to beat although the Corona Angels may have something to say about that. Fun times ahead!

 

*** The shocker of the day came in the second series of games today (at 12:30 pm) as one of my favorites to go very far, the Texas Glory-Shelton team, was knocked off by the California Cruisers-Sievers.

Taking nothing away from the Cruisers because they’re very talented but based on the how well the Glory had played much of the summer, this 6-1 loss was a surprise.

The roof caved in in the 2^nd inning when the Cruisers scored five against pitcher Mo Garcia who had been brilliant every time I saw her. Just goes to show that anyone can have a bad day.

A highlight of the big inning for the victors was a two-run home by outfielder Samantha Klune. First baseman Sarah Cwiertnia also had a big day going 3-for-4 with two RBI.

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The game of the day (in my opinion) was the thriller between the Texas Firecrackers Gold-May and Strike Force Gold which ended 7-6 in the Texans’ favor as the Firecrackers Gold scored three runs in the bottom of the 7^th to turn a 6-4 deficit into a walk-off win.

Kristin Clark (2014, Texas) hit the two-run home run to turn it around and cause bedlam from the Firecrackers’ dugout.

It was the Hollywood situation: down 6-5, bottom of the seventh, 3-2 count with two outs. Happens every day… in your dreams!

Afterwards, as the team was loading in their white vans, she reflected on the hit.

“It was a screwball,” she said. “I didn’t know it was a home run, I just watched it the whole way until it went over the fence. What’s funny is I watched a girl two batters ahead of me hit one I was sure it was a home run and it was caught so I wasn’t too sure about mine!”

 

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Very impressed today with Erin Rethlake (2014, Kentucky) of the Indiana Magic who threw a three-hitter with four K’s in a 1-0 win over a good Firecrackers-Snyder team.

Erin also hit a home run in the bottom of the sixth to break the scoreless tie and said her “drop and curve were on today.”

I did a video interview with her which I’ll run soon and she had some funny things to say, like she’s terrified of sharks. Being from Ohio and not remembering too many shark encounters growing up in the Buckeye State, I was surprised because I don’t think her Fort Wayne area had Great Whites either.

More fun stuff to come.

 

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I had picked Tony Rico’s Firecrackers team as one of my five favorites to make it to Saturday (the Glory were another so they’ll really have to crank it up for me!) but the perennial power is battling a tougher foe: injuries:

Jeff Blanco told me his daughter, Tera, (2014, Michigan) won’t be pitching for four months due to tendinitis in her shoulder so she’s out as is outfielder Bri Tautalafua (2015, UCLA) with ACL damage, apparently hurt in a playoff game supposedly at UCLA.

So that will be tough to overcome, but Coach Rico always has his team deep with talent so don’t be surprised if they go farther than most would expect.

Others will have to pick up the slack and that’s what happened today as Kourtney Shaw (2015, Cal) pitched a one-hitter in the 5-1 win over Finesse. The only mistake was a home run to 3B/OF Jessie Mehr (2014, Virginia Tech).

Equally impressive, Kourtney walked zero while striking out seven.

Offensively, the Firecrackers have some elite talent who can make it happen and two of those had big games today: third baseman Taylor VanZee (2014, Washington) went 3-for-4 and scored twice and infielder Nicole DeWitt (2014, Florida) went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

 

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Two more impressive pitching performances:

— When Ashley Guillette (2015, Florida) of the Rhode Island Thunder allowed the first two runners on in the game with Irvine Sting, I thought, “Hmmm, let’s see how she handles this.”

She managed to get out of the inning and not allow a run to a good Sting team in a five-inning 8-0 win.

— One of the top pitching duels of the day came in the NC Lady Lightning’s 2-1 win over the Originals.

Paige Parker (2014, Oklahoma) struck out 11 but took the loss despite giving up only six hits and one earned run while Regan Green (2015, Mississippi State) scattered four hits and struck out 10 in the win and came back in the later game, a 4-1 over Jersey Intensity, to pick 2 1/3 innings allowing just two hits.

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Off the field, I had a nice chat with Stanford’s new head coach Rachel Hanson who came over from Dartmouth.

She has hired two great young assistants who will be able to relate to players well: Dorian Shaw and Megan Langenfeld.

I promised Coach Hanson I had some “blackmail” photos of her two new assistants and below are just a teaser: