Xplosion rallies to claim title

The Xplosion, a 10-and-under All-Star team out of North Huntington Beach Girls Softball, won the Gold Division championship at the first Surf City Classic All-Star Tournament.

The event, hosted by South Huntington Beach Girls Fastpitch Softball, began Saturday and concluded Sunday and hosted teams from throughout Southern California.

The Xplosion won its first game by defeating Santa Monica, 4-1. It followed that win with a 3-1 triumph over Torrance, which moved them into the elimination round, where they needed three consecutive wins to take the title.

The first elimination round game saw the Xplosion hold on for a 5-4 victory over Oceanside. Next came a 7-3 win over the South Huntington Beach Dynamite.

In the championship game, the Xplosion faced a strong Bonita Valley team that had outscored opponents, 33-1, in winning their four previous games. Neither team was able to score in the first two innings of the division final, but the Xplosion was able to strike first, scoring three runs behind some clutch hitting and aggressive base running. Bonita Valley rallied in the fourth and sixth innings to score four runs to take a 4-3 lead.

The Xplosion, however, came up with a huge final at-bat to pull out a 5-4 victory.

In the seventh, lead-off hitter Hannah Howell singled. Taylor Hickman followed with a sacrifice bunt that moved Howell to second base and then the Bonita Valley infield couldn’t handle a hard shot by Aly Sojka and Howell scored the tying run. Meghan Myer moved the base runner over to third and then a line drive up the middle by Darcy Weiser brought home the winning run.

The North Huntington Beach Xplosion 10-and-under All-Star team is: Hannah Howell, Taylor Hickman, Alyssa Horeczko, Kristina Inouye, Kelly Kazempoor, Anna Kufta, Stephanie Lakso, Meghan Myer, Ally Sterzer, Aly Sojka, Darcy Weiser, Kylee Zwonitzer Coach Ken Inouye and coaching staff of Brian Sterzer, Marci Zwonitzer, Roman Horeczko and Steve Lakso.