Flashback to August 2007 and one of the most exciting ASA Gold 18-Under championship games ever.

Pitting the two SoCal juggernauts—the defending champion OC Batbusters and the team they beat the year before, the Firecrackers—it was a game for the ages as the reigning champs jumped out to a 4-0 lead on a grand slam by future UCLA infielder Monica Harrison.

However, the Firecrackers came back to tie the game on a bases loaded single in the sixth inning by Kristen Arriola (who a year later was a Pac-10 All-Freshman honoree) and a bases-clearing double by Wendy Trott (a future Oklahoma Sooner Academic All-Big 12 first-team honoree).

In the bottom of the seventh, the Firecrackers loaded the bases and pushing the winning run across the plate on an infield grounder by Perelini (Lini) Koria (who’d go on to have a good career at Arizona).

Another UCLA Bruin, Megan Lagenfeld, took home the win to run her record in that year’s title chase to 6-0.

A few weeks after the championship, we caught up with Coach Tony Rico and asked him to look back on that team… here the coach summarizes his squad with a surprising word you don’t often hear used to describe a championship team!

Coach Rico also recounts some of the highlights for him of that 2007 summer season including who he was most happy for when the Huntington beach, Calif. team won it all…

Click here to see the Tony Rico video