After two days of competition at the Louisville Slugger Independence Day tournament (Boulder) and at the Coloradeo Firecrackers/Sparkler, we’re starting to see some teams separate at the 18U level… here are some highlights as we approach the weekend and bracket play.

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COLORADO FIREWORKS/SPARKLER

*** The Firecrackers-Rico team had an impressive Thursday, knocking off the Texas Bombers and Nemesis Elite to earn the top seed in Bracket A. The Firecrackers scored 16 runs in the two wins.

*** Texas Glory-Shelton, which lost to the Firecrackers in a televised game on Wednesday, has emerged from Bracket B as the top seed after knocking off Texas Peppers Gold and the Arizona Hotshots Gold-Davis. Glory, which is always an efficient hitting club, put up 9 runs in each of the wins.

*** Offensive seemed to be the strength of the day on Thursday and the Gold Coast Hurricanes didn’t disappoint in Bracket C, knocking off Texas Glory-Adkins 5-0 and Tulsa Elite 95 10-3.

*** Texas Impact Gold beat the So Cal Pumas 8-0 and Oklahoma Exclusive Gold 4-3 to take the top seed in Bracket D.

*** Another Firecrackers team, the Lakewood Firecrackers, survived Bracket E games in two tight contests as they topped the Texas Firecrackers 6-4 and the TC Stars Gold 5-4.

*** A lot of good Texas and California teams in this tournament and in Bracket F the Golden State topped the Lone Star State as Minors Gold-Lovelace squeaked out a 3-2 win over the Texas Aces Express Gold to take the No. 1 seed.

*** Watch out for the Miami Stingrays, which won Bracket G win wins over the Texas Firecrackers DFW and the East Coast Firecrackers 4-0. The Stingrays have solid pitching and good pop in the lineup led by 1^st Team All-American Caitlin Charlton, who is going to Baylor.

*** The Texas Bombers Gold is one of the elite teams in Texas and earned top seed honors by stopping the Blue Angels Gold 7-1 and then outlasting California Lite 5-4 in Bracket H.

*** One of the top teams so far this summer has been the Teas Sudden Impact Gold which advanced to the finals of the So Cal Athletics Invitational. The Impact Gold took Bracket I’s No. 1 seed by beating the NC Lady Lightning gold 8-4 and then stopping OC Batbusters-Gonzalez 8-2.

*** Bownet Gold-Ashley/Creamer knows how to win tight games and did it again in Bracket J by taking a pair of one-run games, first 6-5 over Texas KAOS Gold and then 5-4 over So Cal 3D Gold.

 

BOULDER TOURNAMENT

*** The East Cobb Bullets will ride pitcher Kelly Barnhill as far as she can take them and based on the first four games it looks like they can go pretty far. The Bullets were 4-0 after Thursday’s action ended and in the quartet of wins, they’ve pitched three shutouts and won the only tight game, 3-2, over Team North Florida.

*** The Corona Angels went 1-1 on Wednesday with the only loss being to the Beverly Bandits, but pitched two shutouts yesterday with wins over the Washington Ladyhawks and the Babusters-Fox teams. Marty Tyson’s team has great depth in the circle including Alexis Osorio, Miranda Viramontes, and Rachel Garcia and if any or all get hot, the Angels could make it to the finals.

*** The OC Batbusters-Haning team continues to roll and though the pitchers gave up three runs in the pair of games Thursday, the potent offense scored 20 runs. Pick your poison, the Batbusters can beat you with pitching, scoring and defense.

Explosion is also in the Batbuster pool (Pool E) and is now 3-1 after losing 5-4 to the Rhode Island Thunder.

*** To me, the surprise of the summer so far has been Carolina Elite which is now 4-0 (in Pool H). We learned at the Team NJ Classic they can hit (had 28 home runs and made it to the final). The offensive onslaught continues as the team has scored 7, 13, 7 and 8 runs in its four wins so far.

*** Team Mizuno Impulse suffered its first loss—after allowing only three runs in the first three games, Impulse fell 7-5 to Colorado Stars Gold. Both teams are 3-1 and look good heading into Friday’s action.

*** At the So Cal Athletics Invitational two weeks ago, you had 14 of the best teams in the country. The one elite program and probably the top team from California not there was Sorcerer Gold and the Nor Cal team continued to roll Thursday upping its record to 4-0. After pitching a pair of shutouts on Wednesday, the pitchers did give up four runs on Thursday in the two wins, but I’ll take Johanna Grauer, who was named yesterday as the MaxPreps National Player of the Year, in a clutch game every day of the week.

The game of the year, whenever it happens, would have to be the OC Batbusters-Haning versus Sorcerer Gold based on performance to this point.

*** Over in the Louisville tournament, where they are 32 teams, each of the four pools has a 4-0 team… they are: So Cal A’s-Joey, Minnesota Sting, Batbusters-Dave and Polar Crush (Mass.). We’ll see Friday if this quartet of talented teams can remain undefeated.