Rock Gold-Waye makes impressive run to U18 championship game
No matter what happened late Saturday night, what the Rock Gold-Waye team accomplished at this year’s USA Softball 18-and-under Gold National Championships was nothing short of extraordinary.
As The Trentonian went to press Saturday evening, Rock Gold-Waye was to have squared off with Team Georgia Gold in the championship game in Plano, Texas. To win the prestigious title Rock Gold-Waye needed to beat Team Georgia twice.
The fact Rock Gold was in the final was amazing in itself because it had fallen into the losers’ bracket late Friday night after dropping a 1211 heartbreaker to the Ohio Hawks in the semifinals.
Making the comeback task even tougher was the temperature once again reached 110 degrees on Saturday and Rock Gold had to come out of the losers’ bracket.
Not to be deterred, the local team ripped off three straight wins to reach the finals despite having a roster of only high school players against teams loaded up with college players.
In order on Saturday, Rock Gold-Way beat the KC Gold, 5-0, Mississippi Elite Gold, 8-2, and then avenged its earlier loss to the Ohio Hawks with an 11-3 victory in the losers’ bracket final.
The three wins left Rock Gold with a 9-1 record in the tournament heading into the championship game.
The win over KC Gold featured a dominating performance by University of Florida bound righty Danni Farley, who struck out 11 in her shutout victory.
Offensively, former Neshamimy star Natalie Rios was 3-for-4, while Gianna Epps and Breanna Bryant both drove in two runs. Zoey Jones was also 2-for-3 and Ashley Worrell homered.
Rock-Gold then advanced to the losers’ bracket final with a convincing win over Mississippi Gold Elite. Worrell tossed an eight-hitter and also set the tone with a three-run home run in the first inning.
Rock Gold then blew it open with four more in the fifth when Emma Ritter and Jones set the table with backto-back doubles. Ritter went 4-for-4 and had two doubles along with Jones.
Featuring a host of Big Ten Conference players, the Ohio Hawks came out strong in the losers’ bracket final with three runs in the top of the first, but it was all Rock Gold from there.
Kylie Kenney got her first start of the tourney and made the most of if with five strikeouts. Rick Waye’s team pounded out a whopping 16 hits in all, including four from Meghan Sheehan. Ritter was 3-for-4 with with three RBIs, Jones was 3-for-4 and Bryant was 2-for-3.
Because the tournament was running late, Rock Gold had to reschedule its f lights to St. Louis to compete in the Junior Olympic Cup. Rock Gold will open play in that tournament on Monday morning at 8 a.m.