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On Monday, October 21 we begin our week-long look at the Extra Elite Eighty 18U Club Teams and there’s a lot of talent at the top and throughout the list.
One team that finished the 2019 summer with a great run was TJ Goelz’s Tampa Mustangs squad who finished in the Top 5 of all four national-level events it played in and Top 3 in three of them:
- USA Elite World Fastpitch Championship (3rd )… lost to OC Batbusters-Stith in bottom of the 7th inning 5-4 after leading 4-3 going into inning)
- TCS Sparkler/FireCracker 18u Power Pool (2nd)… lost to a hot Oro Valley Suncats team
- TCS Nationals (5th)… lost to Aces Express Gold- McCorkle in last inning with two outs.
- PGF 18UPremier National (3rd)… lost to eventual champion A’s Mercado while defeating perennial powers Beverly Bandits-Tyrell, Firecrackers-Rico, and OC Batbusters-Stith consecutively to advance to the Final Four.
What makes the Florida-based team one to watch is the fact the Mustangs return everyone who finished the season at PGF. “We lose no starters from our last four PGF games,” Coach Goelz says.
And he’s high on his team heading into 2019-2020 because the players now know what it takes to reach the top.
“We did this as a first year 18s team that will have 16 of the 18 players returning,” Goelz adds.
On Saturday, the Mustangs showed what they could do… competing in the Team NJ Showcase, the team won big their games against a pair of East Coast programs by scores of 8-0 and 21-2. In the latter win, Goelz’s daughter Avery, a Top 10 player in the 2020 class and Florida commit, had seven RBIs.
“This team is led by its offensive firepower and athleticism,” says Coach Goelz. “We have girls who can play large or small ball 1-through-9 in the lineup, and almost all are 5-tool athletes.”
Here’s a primer on the team which has three more events this fall and will be a favorite in all the tournaments/nationals it plays next summer.