Club Spotlight: Top Club National Championship… Saturday Semi Matchups Set After Great Bracket Play on Friday

The Top Club National Championship held in the Oklahoma City area over the last several days wraps up on Saturday (weather permitting) with the semi-finals set for the ages of 18U, 16U, 14U and 12U.

The event started with 145 teams this week and it’s down now to the Sweet Sixteen.

Here are the matchups set-up for Saturday although thunderstorms are expected to hit on Saturday, potentially hard at times, but as of Friday night everything was looking to move forward… if so, and these games are played, it could surpass even last year’s fantastic finishes at Top Club.

One final observation before getting to highlights of the day: the talent in this year’s event is very, very impressive both at the team and player level.

Now surprise, then, that well over 100 college coaches have showed up over the last few days and we’ve seen head coaches such as Florida’s Tim Walton, Oklahoma State’s Kenny Gajewski, Arizona State’s Trisha Ford, Georgia new head coach Tony Baldwin, Nebraska’s Rhonda Revelle, Missouri’s Larissa Anderson, Texas’ Mike White and probably many more I’m missing!

Here are some observations made today…

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There were some amazing games on Friday, but the best one I saw—maybe the best one I’ve seen all SUMMER!—was the one at 18U between Mike Stith’s OC Batbusters and Nebraska Gold led by Beth Singleton.

The game was an amazing pitching duel between two of the top hurlers in their individual classes.  It was also scoreless until the 10^th inning!

We know about Jordyn Bahl, the Oklahoma-bound 2021 ranked #1 in the Extra Elite 100 and she was tremendous.

Going the distance, she struck out 15 Batbusters and only gave up one walk and no earned runs.

Like last week at Top Gun Invitational, she twice got in trouble in ITB as she got bases loaded with no outs in the 8th inning and escaped and then had the go-ahead run at third with no outs in the 9^th but was able to move to the 10^th inning with no runs allowed.

That changed in the top of the 10^th however, as 2021 OF Hannah Coor was placed at second base and stole third to get the Batbusters a prime change to get on the board… and the third time was the charm.

With one out and the count evened at 2-2, 2023 Oklahoma commit Maya Bland put the ball in play and allowed Coor to spring home for what would be the game’s only run:

Notice a theme yet? Coor, from Yorba Linda, Calif., is signed with the Sooners as is Bahl and Bland, one of the top 2023’s in the nation is headed there too. No wonder that Sooner pitching coach Jennifer Rocha was in the stands watching!

College coaches can’t talk about prospects they’re watching, of course, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the OU coach was there to also check out the pitcher on the other side: 2023 lefty Ryan Maddox, who was amazingly good.

*** Scroll down to read more about the Top Club National Championship heating up on Friday!

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