What started off as a pitcher's duel during 12U PGF Premier bracket play ended in the sixth inning for Georgia Impact - Langston and Batbusters - Flores.

After a scoreless deadlock heading into the sixth inning, Georgia Impact-Langston scored the game's first two runs before OC Batbusters-Flores answered with three runs of their own en route to a 3-2 victory to advance to the semifinal round of the PGF 12U Premier Nationals on Wednesdaynight at Harvard Park in Irvine, California.



The Batbusters knew they had their work cut out for them with the Impact's Kirsten Fleet throwing a gem, but they finally got to her in the bottom half of the sixth inning. Kaila Pollard led off the inning with an infield single, Presley Hosick singled, and Kayla Lyon doubled off the right-field wall, scoring Pollard to put the Batbusters on the board. Rosario Cano picked up an infield single that scored Hosick to tie the game 2-2, but a groundout to first from Lydia Dillon sent Lyon home to make it a 3-2 game. Cano went back to the mound to finish the job.

"We had to stay positive the entire time," Cano said. "We did that and we never settled. That's our motto. We never forget that we are Batbusters and we have to try our hardest every time on every pitch. When we were losing, I felt we can still put the bat on the ball. I knew I had to just trust my pitches and with my defense and offense behind me, everything will be okay. We just have to keep staying focused and be prepared for anything that comes to us. We have to be ready for anything."

The Impact did score first and it came in the top of the sixth inning with a one-out single to center field by Jaydyn Goodwin. With two outs and Goodwin on second, Aspen Calloway hit a grounder to shortstop, but the ball was overthrown, allowing Goodwin to score. Calloway ended up on second base on the error, stole third, and scored on a single to left field by Cayda Parker to make it 2-0.

Georgia Impact came close to making a comeback in the top of the seventh inning after a two-out single to center field from Taylor Malvin, who got to third after another overthrown ball that also moved Jadyn Laneaux to second, but Goodwin grounded out to third to end the game.

"You have two of the best teams in the country playing here," Impact coach Michael Langston said. "I think that is why everyone stopped by to see this game to see games like that and be a part of games like that. It hurts, I'm not going to lie. I thought with the way we were throwing, I thought we would be able to get out of here at least 2-0 or 2-1. We were there in the last inning. Our kids never quit. There is nobody at the park that I would rather have than Jaydyn Goodwin right there. It just didn't go our way. We know what is ahead of us, we will regroup, we'll be back here tomorrow morning and we expect to be back at the stadium playing for a national title."

Fleet struck out six in six innings for Georgia Impact, who moves into the loser's bracket to face the winner of the Texas Intensity South-Smith/Birmingham Thunderbolts game on Thursday afternoon. They know that it will be a busy and long day of consecutive games if they want to play for a national title on Friday.

"I think it is five games all day long," Langston said. "We have some pitching. We are very strong at the circle. We have athletes and our hitters are going to give us a chance. I think we have one of the best defenses in the country. We will leave it all out there on the line when we back out here tomorrow."

Cano, who went 2 for 4, threw a complete game with six strikeouts to pick up the victory thanks to her tying RBI. The Batbusters advance to the semifinals to face Diamond Hotshots Gold on Thursday afternoon.

"We have to play defense and pitch well," Batbusters coach Robert Flores said. "That is what we based our team on. If we pitch well, play D and get some timely hits, I think we will be all right."

In other PGF 12U Premier games

Diamond Hotshots Gold 5, Firecrackers-Brashear 3
Emma Stroud went 1 for 2 with a walk and an RBI to help the Hotshots advance to the semifinal round. Maci Bergeron, Emma Garcia, and Evany Gonzalez each drove in a run and SJ Geurin threw a complete game with five strikeouts to pick up the victory for the Hotshots, who OC Batbusters-Flores on Thursday afternoon.

"We had to stay calm through the big and hard moments," Stroud said. "We had to come together as a team and really click. We have to know where we are. We just have to keep doing what we are doing and just stay calm in big pressure moments and execute the small things."

Maya Loper went 2 for 4 with a double and two RBIs, Liliana Hermosillo drove in a run and Keira Bucher threw a complete game in the loss for the Firecrackers, who move into the loser's bracket to take on the winner of the Salinas Storm-West Bay Warriors game on Thursday afternoon.

EC Bullets-Mayfield 7, Texas Bombers 6
The Bullets scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to take the lead and advance to the semifinal round.

Malysha Winston went 1 for 3 with a double and two RBIs, Raven Thompson went 2 for 2 with a double, Amiah Kyye Ricks went 2 for 4, and McKaela Walker went 1 for 4 with an RBI and threw 4.2 innings in relief with seven strikeouts to pick up the victory for the Bullets, who take on the Beverly Bandits-Pannell on Thursday afternoon.

Arabella Garcia went 1 for 3 with two RBIs, Victoria Altamirano went 1 for 4 with an RBI and Keely Williams picked up the loss in relief for the Bombers, who move into the loser's bracket to take on the winner of the Athletics-Mercado/OC Batbusters-Mascarenas game on Thursday morning.



Beverly Bandits-Pannell 2, Texas Impact Gold-Spencer 1
Despite giving up a run in the top of the seventh inning, Keagan Rothrock still managed to throw a no-hitter to send the Bandits to the semifinal round. Rothrock struck out 13, Taylor Pannell went 2 for 3 with a double and an RBI, and Ella Whitney went 2 for 3 for the Bandits.

Victoria Valdez scored the lone run for Impact Gold and Halie Pappion threw six innings in the loss for Impact Gold, who face the winner of the USA Athletics-Mathis/Diamond Hotshots-Bailey game on Thursday afternoon in the loser's bracket.

OC Batbusters-Mascarenas 9, Ohana Tigers-Garcia 3
Ella Parker went 2 for 3 with two home runs and four RBIs while striking out seven batters in four innings to keep the Batbusters alive. Audree Mendoza went 1 for 3 with a double and two RBIs, Jaeya Butler and Imogen Gie each drove a run each for the Batbusters, face Athletics-Mercado on Thursday morning in the loser's bracket.

Emily Schepp went 3 for 4 with a triple and two RBIs, Piper Garcia drove in a run, and Faith Soriano drew the loss for the Tigers, who were eliminated.

Salinas Storm 5, South Dakota Renegades 4
Samantha Rocha went 1 for 3 with a double and two RBIs and threw a complete game to keep the Storm alive. Victoria Castillo went 2 for 3 for the Storm, which faces the West Bay Warriors on Thursday morning.

Reagan Gilmore, Riley Gilmore, and Ruby Moore each drove in a run and Sydney Schwartz went 2 for 4 with double and an RBI and threw six innings in the loss for the Renegades, who were eliminated.

Beverly Bandits-Pannell 7, Athletics-Mercado 4
The Bandits jumped on the Athletics for five runs in the first inning. That quick start helped as the Athletics chipped away, but the five-run first inning was too much to overcome as the Bandits advanced to the quarterfinals.

Keagan Rothrock went 2 for 4 with a two-run double in the first inning and threw 4.2 innings of relief work and struck out nine batters to get the win. Amanda Aardema went 3 for 5, Taylor Pannell went 2 for 3 with a double, a walk and an RBI, and Grace Hollopeter went 2 for 4 for the Bandits, who also defeated Texas Impact Gold-Spencer, 2-1, to advance to the semifinals.

"I couldn't have done it without my teammates," Rothrock said. "They helped me along the way and I couldn't have done it without them. We needed a good attitude and a team effort."

Priscilla Llames went 2 for 3 with two RBIs and a walk, Dakota Potter drove in a run in the first inning and Alyvia Hernandez threw 4.1 innings in the loss for the Athletics, who moved down to the loser's bracket, but stayed alive after beating their sister team, Athletics Mercado-Kinch, 5-1, and will take on OC Batbusters-Mascarenas on Thursday morning.

Texas Bombers 8, Firecrackers-Holcomb 2
Victoria Altamirano went 4 for 4 with a two doubles, a solo home run to center field in the sixth inning and four RBIs to lead the Bombers to the next round of the winner's bracket. Keely Williams went 3 for 4 with an RBI and two stolen bases, Alexis Rodriguez went 2 for 4 with an RBI double in the seventh inning, and Alexis Nava went 2 for 4 with an RBI double in the sixth inning and threw a complete game to get the win for the Bombers, who moved down to the loser's bracket following a 7-6 loss to EC Bullets-Mayfield.

"We just had to play together, me and my team working together," Altamirano said. "Hitting, scoring and playing clean defense. We have to get the whole team together. We have to get our hits and play clean defense like we always do."

Kanisha Anderson went 3 for 4 with a double and an RBI, Emma Pangelina went 1 for 3 with an RBI and Sidne Saldana went 1 for 3 while throwing 6.1 innings in the loss for the Firecrackers, who got knocked out of the tournament in the quarterfinals of the loser's bracket after a 6-4 to Diamond Hotshots-Bailey.

CA Breeze-Fernald 4, So Cal Athletics-Limo 1
Malaya Johnson went 1 for 2 with a double and an RBI and she also threw 4.1 innings of relief to help the Breeze stay alive in the loser's bracket. D'Auna Johnson went 2 for 4 with a double and an RBI and Imani Black picked up the victory with 2.2 innings of work for the Breeze, who lost in the next round to Diamond Hotshots-Bailey, 5-2.

"We needed to work together as a team," Johnson said. "We had a lot of good communication in that game. We had to work together as a team to get big hits and the outs that we needed. We just need to work together and be cooperative. Everybody needs to do their job."

Giavanna Felice went 1 for 3 with a double and Lilliana Ramirez-Johnson threw a complete game in the loss for the So Cal Athletics, who were eliminated.


Follow Manny Alvarez on Twitter @SoCalSidelines.