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After a great week of 18U and 16U games and championships ending last Saturday, the 2019 PGF Nationals kicked off the first full day of 14U and 12U action.
We were there at the Huntington Beach Sports Complex focusing on the 14U Premier bracket games which ran from 8 am to almost 10 pm PST.
Here’s a look at some of the key news and notes…
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Talking with a college coach today—and there were a lot more than I thought I’d see for the 14U’s who now are a couple years away from being recruited, but that’s a story for another time—we agreed that to win a PGF National title you need four things (and not necessarily in order of importance):
- talent
- a good draw
- luck
- good health
There are a LOT of talented teams and if any get hot they can run the table or get close to it. Luck can mean a lot, including a pitcher clicking at the right time or an offense putting it all together. Good health, well, we’ve seen how a good player can go down at any time.
For example, without naming names, a top team had a pitcher go to the plate and hit and guess what happened? She got hit on the hand and couldn’t pitch today… and the team lost. Ouch.
But let’s go back to a good draw. That can mean a lot of things, from not having to be in the play-in game to avoiding top teams, especially those that have your number to being in a bracket where things match-up well for you to advance.
The play-in games today had some excellent match-ups including the Thunderbolts beating the Delaware Cobras, Cal Breeze knocking off the Indiana Magic, TN Mojo shutting out the Rhode Island Thunder, but the top game matching two teams featured one of the best from California vs. one of the best from Texas.
James Burgess’s Texas Bombers HTX team defeated Marty Tyson’s Corona Angels – 14U squad 3-2 on a walk-off triple by Kayden Hendry (2023, uncommitted) in a tight game that featured two teams who could win it all.
The Bombers have already won two big tournaments– the Sparkler Jr 14U Power Pool in Colorado and the USA Elite Select World Fastpitch Championships in Kansas City—and have what it takes to win at PGF too, after the strong pitching today of Marlen Sandoval (2022, uncommitted) and another great ace in Halie Pappion (2022, Louisiana-Lafayette).
The Angels have won two 14U titles under Coach Tyson, last year (2018) and also in 2014 when Megan Faraimo was the standout of the tournament.
It’s hard to do coming from the Loser’s Bracket when you have to win so many games, but the Angels have great athletes, depth and if the pitching gets hot, led by Key-Annah Pu’A (2022, uncommitted), then the Angels could make it to Friday and the IF game.
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Two other favorites had to do the play-ins and avoided upsets… the Tennessee Mojo-Fisher and the Birmingham Thunderbolts-Flannery.
The Mojo beat the RI Thunder 4-0 as Keagan Rothrock (2023, Florida) was strong and then the team run-ruled the Texas Glory 05 team 10-1 as Emma Langston (2022, Georgia) and Taylor Hess (2022, uncommitted) looked strong.
But here’s where it gets interested and goes to the luck of the draw: tomorrow in the Winner’s Bracket, the Mojo—our preseason #1 team—has to play the Diamond Sports Hot Shots—our #3 team—at 5 pm Thursday at the Huntington Beach Sports Complex.
