Alliance and PGF 2022 All-Star High School All-Star Games

[OUBeliever56A]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Thursday's Action at both the Alliance and the PGF National Championships were long days for the teams. Here is a short recap.

Alliance action on Thursday:

All three of the Sooner influenced teams advanced through the day to final 16 teams. The play is now down to two 8 team brackets with the winner of each bracket facing off in the finals. It looks like to me that they will play down to the final two in each bracket on Friday and Saturday. Then the final four teams will complete play on Sunday.

• The OC Batbusters Stith won their lone game yesterday 3-2 over Fury Platinum X - Higdon. The Batbusters re 4-0 in the tourney.
  
  From EIS: Oklahoma-bound C Jocelyn Erickson drove in all three runs with a triple and a ground ball in the ITB and Arizona-committed 2023 P Ryan Maddox pulled out the win as #8 OC Batbusters-Stith defeated #41 Fury Platinum X-Higdon, 4-2, to capture Super Regional #3. …

• The Texas Bombers Gold also won their only game of the day as they defeated Wichita Mustangs for the second time in two days. On Thursday the Bombers won 5-3.
  
  From EIS: 2023 MIF/3B Reagan Jones went 2 for 3 with a double, a run and an RBI, Louisiana Lafayette-bound OF Mihyia Davis went 1 for 2 with a run, Texas-committed 2023 OF Kayden Henry went 1 for 3 with a run and Oklahoma-bound LHP SJ Geurin allowed five hits, one earned run and struck out five in seven innings as #5 Texas Bombers Gold-Smith beat #52 Wichita Mustangs-Griggs, 4-2, to win Super Regional #2. …

My comment - As I said previously, Mihyia Davis for the Bombers is a standout player. Reagan Jones is another player I thought was very good while they were in Norman. I have jones as Texas A&M commit, but I have seen her listed as uncommitted this week. She is a great 2023 prospect for OU if she is uncommitted. It is great to see Geurin standout at this level of play.

• The Firecrackers Brashear 18U needed to two games to advance out of the Super Regionals. The Firecrackers lost to Aces Fastpitch 4-0 to open the day. In the "IF" game, the Firecrackers rebounded to win 3-2 over the Aces to advance.
  
  From EIS: #7 Firecrackers Brashear lost to #21 Aces Fastpitch Club, 4-0, and won the second game, 3-2, to capture Super Regional #5. Cal Baptist-bound 1B/3B/OF Ashlee Annett went 1 for 3 with the game-tying RBI, Baylor-bound 1B/3B Bethany Spurr went 1 for 3 with the go-ahead home run and 2022 P Keira Buchar pitched the final 6.1 innings, allowed two run on five hits with five strikeouts in the second game against the Aces. …

Action on Friday:

- The OC Batbusters (5-0) open play on Friday against Williamsburg Stars Gold Bunn (6-1). They play at 9 AM EST.
- The Texas Bombers Gold (5-0) opens play against Louisville Lady Sluggers - Huecker (5-0). They play at 11:15 AM EST.
- The Firecrackers Brashear 18U (5-1) opens play against Firecrackers Rico (6-1). They play at 11:15 AM EST.

All three teams will play one more game on Friday in either the winners half or the losers half of the 8 team bracket. The Bombers and the Batbusters are in the same half of the 8-team bracket.

PGF Action on Thursday:

The Hotshots Nationals Nelson team (2-0 in bracket and 3-1 in pool play) opened play against the NW Bullets. After scoring 24 runs in the first two brackets games, the Hotshots bats fell silent as they lost 2-0 to the Bullets. The big moment in the game was in the 5th inning. With one out in the bottom of the inning, The Hotshots changed pitchers. The next two batters for the Bullets drew a walk and then hit a 2-run HR to CF. On the HR, Pickering (OU 2023 commit) took a significant tumble over the temporary fence as she tried to catch the ball that was easily over the fence. Pickering never gave up on catching the ball. Pickering was okay and stayed in the game. In the game Pickering was 0 for 2 with a ground out to SS, a walk and K.

Their next game was against MOJO Fisher. The final score of the game was 3-1 with MOJO Fisher winning. I have watched 2 innings of the game and plan to watched the remainder of the game today. In the 2 innings I saw, Kiersten Deal was pretty good. She struck out 3 Hotshots around a bunt single in the top of the first inning. In the top of the second inning, the Hotshots scored one run after 2 walks and a single before Deal got the third out of the inning with another K. MOJO Fisher took the lead in the bottom of the 2nd with a 2 run HR to lead 2-1.

The loss for the Hotshots eliminated them from the tourney.

From EIS: Kierston Deal, the lefty pitcher headed to Oklahoma and the No. 1 ranked player in the 2022 Extra Elite 100, was another standout who shines although her team didn’t advance to Friday’s action. The Tennessee-Mojo pitcher came up big in the 3-1 win over the powerful Hotshots – Nelson team as she went the complete seven innings and struck out seven while giving up just one earned run on six hits and seven strikeouts.

In other action on Thursday, MOJO Fisher in the losers brackets faced a long day. they played Batbusters Chicago JP at 8 am PST in the morning. MOJO won the game 10-2 with a strong offense. Cato and Fleet pitched for MOJO.

In the 10:15 AM PST game, MOJO faced PA Chaos. Fleet was in the circle for MOJO. With MOJO leading 1-0 in the top of the 4th with 2 outs and a runner on first base, Deal was brought in to pitch. She struck out the hitter. She remained in the game in the 5th and recorded 2 more Ks before giving way to Fleet to finish the inning. MOJO upped their lead to 5-0 in the bottom of the 5th. Deal re-entered the game to record 3 Ks in the top of the 6th. MOJO won 6-0 as time expired in the bottom of the 6th.

MOJO then played the Hotshots in the 2:45 PM PST game which ended in 3-1 and was mentioned above.

With three wins and a 4-1 bracket record MOJO faced the Lady Dukes in the 7:15 game. MOJO started Fleet in the circle. The Dukes scored one run in the bottom of the first inning. In the bottom of the second, the Dukes reached first on an error on a bunt. The next hitter singled to place runners on 1st and 3rd. MOJO decided to bring in Deal to pitch. On the first pitch, the runner on 1B stole second. Deal struck out the first batter and then got her second hitter to pop out to the SS. On a 2-2 pitch, Deal tried to go up and in on a LH batter and the pitch covered too much of the plate and was not up enough. The Dukes hitter pulled the ball sharply down the line for a 3-run HR. Deal allowed another single before she got the 3rd out of the inning on a ground ball back to herself. The final score of the game was 6-1 which eliminated MOJO Fisher from the tourney. I only watched the two innings in this game also. It was late, I will watch the rest of the game today.

My Comment: I have watched Deal pitch quite a bit in Norman and in 3 games on FloSoftball. The pitch that was hit for the 3-run HR, was not a bad pitch, but it was not a good pitch either. It is the only ball that I have seen hit hard off of Deal. Especially hit pulled and hit hard. Deal missed with her pitch by a couple of inches, either in or up.

Both Sooner commits, Pickering for the Hotshots and Deal for MOJO Fisher will play in PGF All-Star Games on Saturday. The Futures game (with Pickering) begins at 6 PM CST on ESPNU. The Senior All-Star Game (with Deal) begins at 9 PM CST on ESPN2. The PGF National Championship game is earlier in the day at 3 PM CST on ESPNU.

[TropicalSooner]

A couple of commits that we haven't heard too much about: Maya Bland, and Nellian McEnroe-Marinas....did their teams make it into post season play or did their season end with regular season play?

[OUBeliever56A]

A couple of commits that we haven't heard too much about: Maya Bland, and Nellian McEnroe-Marinas....did their teams make it into post season play or did their season end with regular season play?

Maya Bland is on the OC Batbusters with Erickson and Parker. Bland is splitting time in RF and maybe CF this season.

McEnroe-Marianas is on the Firecrackers Brashear 18U team. I keep hoping they say something about her. She plays infield. Keeping fingers crossed.

[inconnu]

Does anyone know if Nellian McEnroe-Marinas is any relation to John McEnroe, the former tennis star?

[OUBeliever56A]

Does anyone know if Nellian McEnroe-Marinas is any relation to John McEnroe, the former tennis star?

I do not know about that. She is from Hawaii. I think she is Polynesian.

https://www.instagram.com/mcenroe_marinas_2023/?hl=en

[TropicalSooner]

I really like our "Hawaiian Connection" !

[OUBeliever56A]

Alliance National Championships Action from Friday - July 29th

The day started with 2 brackets of 8 teams. All three teams with Oklahoma commits were in Bracket A. Here is a recap of Bracket A.

In the top half of Bracket A was:

Corona Angels Tyson 18U (5-0) vs Athletics Mercado Smith (5-0): The Corona Angels won the game 8-5.

Firecrackers Rico (6-1) vs Firecrackers Brashear 18U (5-1): Rico defeated Brashear 6-5

= = = = = In the winner's game Firecrackers Rico (7-1) defeated the Corona Angels 4-0.

= = = = = In the loser's game Athletics Mercado Smith (6-1) defeated Firecrackers Brashear 9-3. (Firecrackers Brashear [5-3] is eliminated.)

In the bottom half of Bracket A was:

OC Batbusters-Stith (5-0) vs Williamsburg Starz Gold Bunn (6-1). The OC Batbusters won the game 8-0.

Texas Bombers Gold 18U (5-0) vs Louisville Lady Sluggers - Huecker (5-0). The Texas Bombers won the game 4-2.

= = = = = In the winner's game Texas Bombers (6-0) defeated the OC Batbusters 13-1.

= = = = = In the loser's game Louisville Lady Sluggers (6-1) defeated Williamsburg Starz 5-3. (Williamsburg [6-3] is eliminated.)

The Bracket A games today are:

OC Batbusters Stith (6-1) vs Athletics Mercado Smith (6-1). The loser is eliminated. The winner plays Firecrackers Rico in a Semi-Final game.

Corona Angels Tyson 18U (6-1) vs Louisville Lady Sluggers - Huecker (6-1). The loser is eliminated. The winner plays the Texas Bombers Gold 18U in a Semi-Final. game.

The Final Games for Bracket A will be on Sunday.

The writeup from EIS about Friday's action is below.

#17 Firecrackers-Rico beat #7 Firecrackers Brashear, 6-5, then beat #6 Corona Angels-Tyson, 4-0, In Bracket A winner’s bracket games. 2024 LHP Zoe Prystajko pitched a shutout, Utah-committed 2023 UT Shonty Passi hit a two-run homer and North Dakota State-bound C/1B Zoe King hit a two-run homer for the Firecrackers against the Corona Angels. …

UCLA-bound SS Jordan Woolery went 2 for 4 with a run and four RBIs and 2024 RHP Cambria Salmon struck out six in seven innings to lead #1 Athletics Mercado-Smith past Firecrackers Brashear, 9-3, in a Bracket A loser’s bracket game. …

Texas-committed 2023 OF Kayden Henry went 2 for 3 with two runs and three RBIs and LSU-bound C/OF Maci Bergeron went 2 for 3 with a homer, two runs and three RBIs for #5 Texas Bombers Gold-Smith in a 13-1 win over #8 OC Batbusters-Stith in a Bracket B winner’s bracket game. …

Louisville-committed Ava Venturelli went 2 for 2 with a double and two runs and Rutgers-bound 3B/OF Calista Collins homered and drove in two runs to help Louisville Lady Sluggers-Huecker defeat Williamsburg Starz Gold-Bunn, 5-3, in a Bracket B loser’s bracket game. …

My thoughts: I am really surprised that the Texas Bombers defeated the Batbusters 13-1. Either team could certainly have won the game but the score is surprising to me. Both teams have top-notch pitching staffs. To score 13 runs, the Bombers must have hit the ball very well and used their speed game with their power very effectively against the Batbusters. This is a also a flip-flop of a Semi Final game in Norman between the two teams where the Batbusters won.

In Bracket B:

The teams remaining are:

18U Texas Glory Gold vs Nationals. The loser is eliminated. The winner plays Gametime 18U Premier - Self in a Semi-Final game.

AZ Hotshots Gold - Davis/Downes vs Ohio Hawks National Harbold. The loser is eliminated. The winner plays Batbusters Gomes 18U in a Semi-Final game.

The Final Games for Bracket B will be on Sunday.

[OUBeliever56A]

PGF Nationals Friday Action:

Again, there are two brackets. There were 6 teams remaining starting Friday. The two teams with OU-commits were in Bracket B. I will start there.

The winner's brackets game had the NW Bullets playing Select FastPitch. The Select FastPitch won their game 2-0.

In the loser's bracket games the Illinois Chill Gold played the Lady Dukes with the Dukes winning 6-1. The So Cal A's Richardson played Carolina Elite with So Cal A's winning 1-0. (The Lady Dukes eliminated MOJO Fisher late Thursday night after MOJO Fisher eliminated the Hotshots Nationals in the previous game.)

in the semi-final game of the loser's bracket the Lady Dukes defeated the So Cal A's 4-3. In the loser's bracket final game the NW Bullets defeated the Lady Dukes 2-1 as they scored 2 runs in the 5th or 6th off of #1 2023 Recruit Kegan Rothrock (Florida). This advanced the NW Bullets to the Bracket A Finals against the Birmingham Thunderbolts.

In Bracket A the winner's bracket game the Birmingham Thunderbolts won 2-0 over Nebraska Gold.

In the loser's bracket games the Empire State Huskies won 1-0 over the AZ Storm. The Lady Magic Munoz defeated 4-3 over the Georgia Impact. In the loser's bracket semi final game the Lady Magic Munoz won 13-0 over Empire State Huskies. In the following loser's bracket final game the Lady Magic Munoz defeated the Nebraska Gold 5-4. The game eliminated the Nebraska Gold (Jordyn Bahl's team) who was trying to win back-to-back championships. This advanced the Lady Magic Munoz to the Bracket B Finals against the Select FastPitch.

In the two bracket Final Games, Select FastPitch won over the Lady Magic Munoz in the "IF" game 6-0 after dropping the first game 5-1. In the other bracket Finals, the Birmingham Thunderbolts defeated the NW Bullets 2-1.

The two teams in today finals at 1:00 PM PST (3 PM on ESPNU) will be Select FastPitch against the Birmingham Thunderbolts.

[White River]

Deal is pitching right now on ESPN 2.

[OUBeliever56A]

Alliance Championships:

The Bracket A games today were:

In the top half of the bracket, the OC Batbusters Stith (6-1) vs Athletics Mercado Smith (6-1) played the early game. The Batbusters won 10-9 over the Athletics who were eliminated.

The OC Batbusters Stith then played the Firecrackers - Rico in the bracket Semi-Finals. the Batbusters had to win 2 games to advance. The Batbusters won 2-0 and 10-2 over the Firecrackers. Here is the summary from EIS.

#8 OC Batbusters-Stith beat #1 Athletics Mercado-Smith, 10-9, in the loser’s bracket and #17 Firecrackers-Rico, 2-0, and 10-2, in the winner’s bracket to earn a spot in Sunday’s national championship series. Utah-bound 2B Karlie Davison went 3 for 3 with three runs and four RBIs and 2025 LF Kai Minor went 4 for 4 with two runs and two RBIs for the Batbusters against the Firecrackers. Oklahoma-bound C Jocelyn Erickson went 3 for 4 with five RBIs, 2024 CF Taylor Shumaker went 3 for 5 with three runs, Arizona-committed 2023 1B Regan Shockey went 2 for 4 with three runs and Oklahoma-committed 2023 P/1B/OF Ella Parker went 3 for 3 with a run and three RBIs in the Batbusters victory over Athletics Mercado-Smith. …

In the bottom half of the bracket the Corona Angels Tyson 18U (6-1) vs Louisville Lady Sluggers - Huecker (6-1) played the early game. The Lady Sluggers won 4-1 over the Angels who were eliminated.

The Lady Sluggers then played the Texas Bombers Gold 18U in a Semi-Finals. The Lady Sluggers would have to win two game to advance. The Texas Bombers won the first game 6-2. Here is the summary from EIS.

Texas A&M-bound IF Aiyanna Coleman went 2 for 3 with a home run and three RBIs, Texas-bound IF Leighann Goode went 1 for 2 with a run and two RBIs and Texas-bound P Citaly Gutierrez pitched well for #5 Texas Bombers Gold-Smith in a 6-2 win over #32 Louisville Lady Sluggers-Huecker to punch their ticket to Sunday’s national championship series. …

Today in the Bracket A Finals it looks like there is a best 2 of 3 games series between the OC Batbusters - Stith and the Texas Bombers Gold 18U teams. they play at 11 AM, 3 PM and 7 PM if needed. All times are EST.

The Bracket B games today were:

18U Texas Glory Gold vs Nationals. The 18U Texas Glory Gold won 7-4 over the Nationals. The Nationals were eliminated. The Texas Glory Gold also defeated the Gametime 18U Premier - Self in two games to win the upper half of the bracket.

AZ Hotshots Gold - Davis/Downes vs Ohio Hawks National Harbold. The AZ Hotshots Gold won 2-0 over the Hawks. The Hawks were eliminated. The Batbusters Gomes 18U defeated the AZ Hotshots Gold 4-1 to win the lower half of the bracket.

The Texas Glory Gold and the Batbusters Gold will play in a 2 of 3 game series today at 11 AM, 3 PM and 7 PM if needed. All times are EST.

[OUBeliever56A]

Deal is pitching right now on ESPN 2.

I was able to watch the game this morning and watched Ms. Deal pitch. All-Star Games are not easy games to pitch in. You have a new catcher and it is tough to get on the same page with the catchers or coaches.

From what I saw, Deal did not get the best defensive help behind her in her two innings and she had a couple of walks that she normally does not have. I thought there were a high amount of rise balls called for Deal to throw. That is not Deal's normal plan. She gets many swings and misses by changing speeds effectively out over the outside of the plate to both lefties and righties. Deal is more of a spot, speed-changing pitcher than a power pitcher. But she can throw it by hitters when needed.

I have no issues with her performance at all despite her giving up 2 runs in 2 innings. It is a fun game for the players and the competition is pretty good as well. Deal and Ruby Meylan are two of the very best pitchers in the 2022 class. Both will do very well at OU and Washington respectively.

[OUBeliever56A]

The PGF Finals game was between the Birmingham Thunderbolts and the Select FastPitch teams. The Thunderbolts won the game 4-1. Here is the EIS article about the game.

https://extrainningsoftball.com/club-ch ... y-30-2022/

I will share this info about Kenleigh Cahalan who plays SS for the Thunderbolts. She is a 2023 commit to Alabama. She is a pure left-handed hitter. I am not sure where she plays in the field at the D1 level but she is a good athlete so she could probably play several positions. As an OU fan, I will tell you to just remember her name. I would not be surprised to see her in a Sooner Uniform someday.

[TropicalSooner]

Many thanks '56 for all the coverage you have provided for the Playoffs and All-Star games. We always enjoy hearing about how our future OU players are doing during their Summer Travel Ball seasons.
And also, I really enjoy the little "teaser tidbits" (Cahalan) that you toss out for us to ponder over.
Thanks!

[TropicalSooner]

Link to the Batbusters / Bombers game:

https://app.athletesgolive.com/EventCom ... ss0w%3D%3D

[OUBeliever56A]

I forgot to mention something about the PGF Finals. The pitching coach for the Birmingham thunderbolts was Gee Juarez. There were a couple of times the announcers mentioned here and showed her on camera talking to the Thunderbolts pitchers. I had no idea about this.

Good to see her still involved in the game.

[OUBeliever56A]

The Batbusters won the first game 9-7 over the Bombers. Erickson went 3-4 with a RBI double and a 2-run HR.

There is an awful lot of talent on the field in these games.

For the Bombers:

Davis (ULL) and Henry (Texas) for the Bombers are great OFs. Jones (A&M I think), Hodge (OU) and Goode (Texas) are very good infielders.

SJ Geurin (OU), Warncke (Baylor 23), are pretty good pitchers also.

For the Batbusters:

Parker and Erickson lead the way as OU recruits but they have several players that are just very steady and very good. Davidson (UTAH), Ramirez (UCLA), Agbayani BYU and Shumaker (OF) are underrated I think. Ryan Maddox (ZONA) is their Primary pitcher and Villegas (LHP) usually gets the job done.