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We continue our list of the Top 15 Softball Stories of 2019, which will run through December 31st when we’ll present our No. 1 story of the year.
Here are the previous stories (clink on link to read):
- #15… Team USA Dominates Summer Competition… with One Exception
- #14… USA Softball’s 2020 Stand Beside Her Tour… Taking the Brand Nationwide
- #13… Sam Show’s Bat Flips – & Clutch Performances – Light Up the 2019 Season
- #12… National High School Player of the Year Sydney Supple Spearheads Hometown Field of Dreams
- #11… Busy Year for the NPF Including USSSA Pride Out & CA Commotion In
We’ve surveyed the softball community and talked internally as well to come up with what were the most impactful and relevant stories of the year pertaining to the world of fastpitch softball.
Where applicable, we are providing links to the original articles and/or references when the story first happened.
Today’s story… #10: PGF Nationals… Few would dispute that the pinnacle of softball club play is the PGF Nationals that take place each year in Orange Country, California. Wrapping up the busy summer schedule, the PGF Nationals reached the decade mark in 2019 and couldn’t have asked for a better birthday present to itself than the great games which provided nail-biting championships (and great drama on the ESPN networks showing the games).
To provide comments, insights or thoughts, email: [email protected].
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If you know your club softball, you know that the Premier Girls Fastpitch (PGF) National Championships are as good as it gets.
This summer saw the Huntington Beach-based PGF company reach its 10 years after being started in 2010.
The company even put out an anniversary video celebrated its one-decade birthday:
… and what a great birthday party it threw for itself this year!
Specifically, four of the five Premier National Championship games were nail-biters, two of which came down to the last play and one that was decided by the bounce of the ball (literally).
Here’s what happened:
- At 18U, a great pitching duel came down to a ball bouncing off the third base bag and leading to the only run of the game.
- At 16U, the final pitch was delivered with two outs, a full count and the bases loaded with the tying run on second!
- At 14U, the #1 team in country in the age division with the #1 overall player in the class and the #1 pitcher in the same class rolled to the championship against an upstart first-year 14U team that refused to give up.
- And at 10U, the battle between two California powerhouse organizations was decided by a walk-off in extra innings.
Happily, the games were shown on the ESPN networks so the exciting championships were seen nationwide, even world-wide.
And that’s very fitting as these elite teams and players deserved to be recognized for some of the best softball we’ve seen in championship games of any level!
*** Scroll down to read the recaps of the PGF National Championships from ages 18U down to 10U…