Pacific Coast Girls Fastpitch Softball Ride The Wave To Capture 3rd in State Championship

The Pacific Coast Girls Fastpitch Softball (PCGFS) 10-under All Star team from Newport Beach and Costa Mesa combined truly stepped up to the challenge in the ASA Junior Olympic State Championship in Lancaster, CA July 11 through the 13th.

Unlike the ASA Junior Olympic District Championship Tournament the week before, this was a tournament with the top three teams assembled from each of the six districts in Southern California. In the 34 games of double-elimination bracket play there simply were no weak teams in the mix. The district champions were present from San Clemente, Eastvale, San Dieguito, Imperial Beach, Hacienda Heights and La Canada.

The Rebels started bracket play with a tough 2-1 win over a strong team from Upland. It was a defensive battle as either pitcher didn’t allow more than four hits. Upland was first to strike in the top of the sixth inning as they manufactured one run on a walk, sacrifice and a two out double. The Rebels struck right back on the bottom half on the inning with two runs on base hits from Riley Gerdau, Kat Perry and Courtney Leyba. The Rebels advanced to meet San Clemente who had defeated the Rebels twice in the District Championship Tournament. This time the Rebels were determined not to make the same mistakes in past games. Paige Migliori taking the mound, San Clemente could only muster five hits to put the Central District champions in the loser bracket.

In the quarter-finals the Rebels faced the North San Diego District champions San Dieguito. After a “Bad News Bears” inning, the Rebels trailed 5-1 at the top of the second inning as rain clouds started to roll in. With brief intermittent rainfall and lighting flashes in the distance the Rebels struck for six runs in the bottom half of the inning. The Rebels comeback started with base hits from Sydney McKeown, Paige Migliori and Jordan Blanchfield then followed by two costly errors from San Dieguito which allowed three runs to score. The onslaught continued with base hits from Riley Gerdau and Kat Perry before Catrell Robertson delivered a crushing triple to right center scoring three more runs. The Rebels ended with a 7-6 decision over San Dieguito to advance to the next round.

In the semi-finals of the winners’ bracket, the Rebels dropped a close one to the South San Diego District champions and eventual tournament winner, Imperial Beach by the score of 3-2. This put the Rebels in the loser bracket to face the Northern District champions Hacienda Heights for the right to advance to the finals. The girls gave it their best as Hacienda Heights was too dominant and dropped their final game 8-1 to place third in the tournament. Coach Chris Migliori said that we were all sad that we couldn’t play another game, but no one could feel anything but proud with the way our girls competed against the best of the best. Another reason to be a proud Rebel!!!