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Triple Crown Sports kicked off its TC/US Nationals tournament in New York six years ago. Each year, the event has grown in number of teams and in the level of competition with journeys through Reno and Austin before hitting the Peach State this summer.
This week’s Nationals in the Atlanta area has lived up to expectations. With well over 150 teams in the 18, 16, and 14U age divisions, Triple Crown seeded the teams into double elimination brackets for rounds of seven-inning, no-time-limit competitive games.
The winners of each bracket move forward into single bracket play which kicked off Wednesday night and concludes with Thursday afternoon’s championships.
The 16U and 18U Championship games will be shown on ESPN3. The matchups are as steamy as the Atlanta weather.
14U FINALS
In the 14U division, only eight teams bracket into the single elimination round, and it is poised to be a true showdown.
The Texas Bomber’s Gold team is turning heads in Atlanta. Loaded with Texas A&M commits, including 2023 pitcher Brenom Brown, infielders Isa Torres (‘23) and Kelsie Kelso (‘22), 2022 outfielder Keely Williams and 2021 catcher Emma Humplik, the Bombers are living up to their name and tearing up the pitching in their bracket, outscoring their opponents 63-5 in winning seven straight games leading up to Thursday’s bracket games. The 14U bracket kicks off at 8 a.m. with the following matchups:
So Cal Choppers Fausett takes on Glory Adkins-Locke 2021, with the winner facing the winner of the Texas Bombers Gold and PA Chaos contest.
On the other side of the bracket, Team NC Louisville Slugger Eaton takes on the PA Strikers National Team. The winner will face the either East Cobb Bullet Heath or Lady Lightning Gold Futures.
16U FINALS
In the 16U division, the competition was intense in the double-elimination brackets.
Drawing in some of the country’s best teams watched by many college coaches in the bleachers and with PGF Nationals just a scant 20 days away, these bracket games saw upsets, great pitching, and defenses rising to the occasion. With 12 teams in the single-elimination final bracket, the 16Us kicked it off Wednesday night.
In a solid hit show, Jacksonville Storm Davis eliminated GA Power Worley while the talent-laden Firecrackers Sewell had a long day after a double elimination loss, but won a close one over Georgia Impact Newland in a 8-7 contest, staying alive for Thursday.
Fury Platinum blanked Orion Hunter while ScrapYard International eliminated the So Cal Choppers-Fausett team. Awaiting the Wednesday night winners were two first-year teams: Tampa Mustangs Walford, a first-year 16U team with nine commits on the roster as well as last year’s PGF 14U Premier Champions, the Dirt Divas 02 squad—the only two first year squads to survive to the Elite Eight.
Atlanta Vipers Holbrook—a Top 10 16U team stacked with future D1 players— and Glory Adkins Gold 16U, which has finished the last two summers in the US Club Ranking’s 8th spot, round out the top eight 16U teams.
18U FINALS
The 18U Gold division is stacked from top to bottom with incredible talent.
It was no surprise to see that the top seed is East Cobb Bullets-Schnute, which boast a terrific one-two pitching punch from Florida in Alabama-bound Lexi Kilfoyl and Tennessee commit Callie Turner.
The first round also played out Wednesday night leaving eight 18 U teams in that bracket as well. Thursday’s field will see So Cal As – Richardson take on Texas Bombers Gold, while Aces McCorkle faces Texas Impact Gold.
On the other side, Georgia Impact Lewis will face the ScrapYard Internationals and East Cobb Schnute has Lady Lightning’s Platinum squad Thursday morning. The theme in the 18U championship could be “Don’t Mess with Texas” as the Lone Star State has four of the eight teams remaining and all have the strength and depth to go all the way.
The pair of “home teams” from teams, including the aforementioned Bullets which is deep with hitters as well as pitchers including All-American Kassidy Krupit (Baylor) and Patrick Lewis’s Impact team which can roll out two pitchers who were Gatorade State Players of the Year in Kelley Lynch from Georgia (2019, Auburn) and Karley Heath from South Carolina (2018, 2018).
And don’t forget about Bruce Richardson’s So Cal A’s team which has speed and athleticism throughout the lineup including outfielders Kelli Godin (2018, UCLA) and Ciara Briggs (2019, LSU).
The 18’s could be anyone’s game and simply a case of who makes the fewest mistakes and/or which team’s pitcher gets hot at the right time.
And once tomorrow’s Triple Crown National’s last pitch is thrown, Atlanta hasn’t seen the last of serious fastpitch as 31 of the teams in the Triple Crown Nationals close out the week with the Atlanta Legacy Showcase, which has 340 teams entered and will host 1,980 games by the Sunday July 15 championships.