Event News: Great Action Friday at Top Gun Invitational… and the College Coaches Are Out in Full Force to See It!

The Top Gun Invitational in Kansas City has over 200 teams competing through Sunday and the and the talent level is outstanding… and the college coaches are well aware as nearly 200 from all parts of the country are here.

Friday saw pool play action all day to help determine the bracket seeing for Saturday.

Here are some news items and highlights from Friday, June 18, 2021 at the prestigious event which topped out at 99 degrees but players and coaches didn’t seem to mind!

*****

Oklahoma, Florida State, Georgia, Texas, Washington, Mississippi State, Northwestern, Maryland, Florida, Ohio State, Missouri, Purdue, Duke, Pitt, Central Florida, Ole Miss, Yale, Kentucky, Iowa, Penn State, Arkansas, Oklahoma State…

Those are just some of the names of colleges that had coaches in person on Friday at the Top Gun Invitational, both head coaches and assistants.

At the Mid-Western West Sports Complex in Shawnee, Kansas on Friday just walking around the complex I saw head coaches like Mike White (Texas), Marissa Young (Duke), Kate Drohan (Northwestern) and Boo De Oliveira (Purdue) just to name a few.

And why would these coaches be in the Kansas City area on a Friday in June?

Because the talent at the Top Gun Invitational featuring 210 teams from Cali to Pennsyvlania, Illinois to Texas, and seemingly everywhere in between was outstanding.

I talked to one college head coach and her assistant and asked why they were parked at one particular game and she said, “This team is from my home state so there is a lot of talent to watch on it that’s close to home and the other team has a lot of young talent.”

*****

Early in the day, I saw two dozen coaches watching a stellar matchup between one of the top teams in Texas, Hotshots – Nelson and the Jordyn Bahl-led Nebraska Gold.

Yesterday, I wrote how on the opening night, Bahl—who is the #1 player in the 2021 Extra Elite 100 and on Friday was named the Nebraska Gatorade State Player of the Year—faced the #1 pitcher in the 2023 class in Keagan Rothrock with the Lady Dukes and lost that game.

Friday morning, the Nebraska star lined up against another Top 5 pitcher in her class, Ava Brown who is ranked #3 in the 2023 Extra Elite 100, and it was a great game.

Bahl gave up an unearned run in the first inning, but buckled down and later hit a home run to help her cause as the Nebraska Gold would win 3-1.

She also gave up just five hits to the powerful Hotshots offense and struck out 12. You can see why she’s won two back-to-back high school state titles in Nebraska.

On an unrelated note, Jordyn is signed with Oklahoma and the Sooners announced Friday the signing of a grad transfer, Hope Trautwein from North Texas, who made national news this year when she became the first pitcher in DI history to throw a “perfect perfect” game, meaning she struck out all 21 batters she faced.

*****

Yesterday it was mentioned that the Beverly Bandits organization got off to a strong start on Thursday… yea, that’s pretty much stayed the same after Friday results rolled in.

Here by age division are the records of the Bandits teams:

18U

• Beverly Bandits DeMarini – Moran: 5-0
• Beverly Bandits Premier – Conroy: 4-0-1

16U

• Beverly Bandits Christopoulos/Blevins
• Beverly Bandits DeMarini – Cray: 5-0
• Beverly Bandits Premier – Yates: 3-1-1

14U

• Beverly Bandits Premier – Chow: 5-0
• Beverly Bandits DeMarini – Scibelli: 2-1-1

For those adverse to math, that’s a 24-2-3 record over the first two days. Impressive.

****

Speaking of the Bandits… one of the top games of the day was the 8 pm 16U matchup between a strong Lady Dukes team I really like and the Beverly Bandits Christopoulos/Blevins team.

The Lady Dukes have great speed at the top of the order and talent up and down the lineup—they’ll be fun to watch this summer but came up just a bit short in the 5-3.

The Bandits CC/GB team, as they’re often referred to, looks strong and Coach Christine Christopoulos’ talented squad will face another standout team, the Texas Dirt Divas – Rogers team that is 4-0-1 at 1 pm Saturday in a pool game that will help determine 1^st place in the Pool B bracket play which starts at 5 pm today.

*** Scroll down to read more  from Day 2 at the Top Gun Invitational!

Join Today to Get Unlimited Access to Extra Inning Softball

Join Now

Already a Extra Inning Member? Log In