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The Top Club National was in full Pool Play mode on Thursday and led into some fun bracket contests as this week’s event in Oklahoma City continues to draw great performances, both team and individually.
There are top teams on every field as over 100 of the best in the country are entered in the 18U, 16U and 14U age divisions.
Top Club National wraps up tomorrow (Saturday) when the championship games will be held at the Firelake Ball Fields in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
As we covered in last week’s preview, the event is loaded with top teams including 21 who were ranked in the Extra Elite Eighty Club Rankings at the 18U division, 19 teams at 16U and 15 in 14U.
Because the age divisions play on three sites, that are fairly spread out in the OKC area—18Us in Choctaw; 16U in Moore and 14U in Shawnee, Oklahoma—with about 20-30 minutes apart, I was at the fields on Wednesday, watched the 16Us yesterday and today will be checking out the 14U’s.
The first game for every team was an “exhibition” game with subsequent games featuring Pool action which wrapped up yesterday.
Click HERE to see scores and schedules for 18U
Click HERE to see scores and schedules for 16U
Click HERE to see scores and schedules for 14U
Here are some thoughts from Day 2 watching 16U games all day.
— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball
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* After today’s games, we’ll have the Final 4 in each of the three age divisions, but we do know of early favorites simply because they’re still in the Winner’s Bracket as of the start of Friday’s action:
- 18U: Oklahoma Athletics, Athletics – Mercado/Smith, Atlanta Vipers, Birmingham Thunderbolts, Aces Fastpitch, Hotshots, Georgia Impact, Impact Gold (Middlebrook)
- 16U: Hotshots Premier – Nelson, Fisher – Mojo, Illinois Chill, Aces Fastpitch, Texas Glory – Naudin, Select Fastpitch, Texas Glory Naudin II, A’s – Mercado/Greg, Gametime Gold, Birmingham Thunderbolts/Scrap Yard International winner (11:30 am Friday)
- 14U: Impact Gold 2023, Iowa Premier, Texas Dirt Divas, Aces Fastpitch, Mojo, Texas Dirt Divas 06, Texas Bombers – Jones, Aces Fastpitch NWA
* Having seen the two older division, I like the pitching of Georgia Impact and A’s – Mercado/Smith and the Aces Fastpitch teams at the 18U level because any of their “aces” could take them all the way with Alex Salter (Georgia Impact), Allison Royalty (A’s) and Mac Morgan (Aces) having done it before.
At 16U’s, you have to think that Mojo – Fisher with pitchers like Keagan Rothrock and Bolts with Alea Johnson and Emma Strood (both going to LSU, by the way) are favorites, but don’t count A’s – Mercado/Greg as Emily Leavitt looked impressive yesterday.
I’ll see the 14U’s today and will have more thoughts later.
* But it’s anyone’s tournament at this point and that’s a big credit to Brian Madden and Cornelius Davis of the Oklahoma A’s who are producing a great tournament that coaches are really loving this week (helps that the weather has been perfect for softball too!).
I’ve been very impressed with Oklahoma A’s teams which are well coached and play fundamentally well which leads us to our Game of the Day…
* Best game I’ve seen all week was a 0-0 tie between the Birmingham Thunderbolts – Roberson and Oklahoma Athletics – Madden/Yeatts which has the feel of a title game.
The pitching was off the hoof as Alea Johnson had 11 strikeouts and her A’s counterpart Bethany Noble was getting the talented but frustrated Bolts hitters to pop up… 9 times.
The defenses were spectacular and twice the Bolts catcher, Sam Roe (Florida commit, #1 player in the 2022 Extra Elite 100) made great plays at the plate to get runners out including a sweet jumping catch and sweeping tag on one play.
Ironically, the tie game forced the Bolts into being a #2 seed in their pool behind the A’s, but it didn’t slow them down at all as they were the…
*** Scroll down to read more about top performers on Day 2 at Top Club National