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The summer club season culminates with what has become the most coveted crown around: the PGF National Championship.
Starting Saturday with pool play and on Monday with bracket player, the 18U PGF Premier National Championship will decide who’s the top team Friday at 4:30 pm PST on ESPN.
Editors Brentt Eads of Extra Inning Softball and Carlos Arias of SoCalSidelines.com have gotten together and compared notes for this big event which includes 72 of the top teams in the nation.
Says Carlos, “The PGF Nationals has evolved into the premier event on the club circuit for softball and the 18U Premier Division is the crown jewel of the event.”
This will be the ninth year of the 18U Premier Nationals and last summer was the first time a non-California team took home the top trophy: for the first four years it was Bruce Richardson’s So Cal A’s team, then a pair of titles went to Mike Stith and Gary Haning’s OC Batbusters followed by Tony Rico’s Firecrackers in 2016 and in 2017 Bill Conroy’s Beverly Bandits (based in Illinois).
“Top organizations tend to stay on top and all of those past champs should be right in it again,” says Brentt.
One newcomer, if you will, who should have a serious shot to win it all would be Greg Schnute’s East Cobb Bullets who are back at PGF Nationals after a few years competing at the USA Softball Junior Olympic Cup (where it has won the championship) and has looked strong this summer.
“If this summer’s results are any indication, the 2018 PGF 18U Premier national title appears to be up for grabs with no clear-cut favorite,” says Carlos.
Here’s a look at some of the top teams Brentt & Carlos think have a shot to be the last team standing a week from today:
