The Pride 14U Green team won a pair of holiday weekend
tournaments within a few weeks of each other recently, including
the Twin Creeks Invitational on the Fourth of July and the
Father
’s Day Tournament in Livermore in mid-June.
The Pride 14U Green team won a pair of holiday weekend tournaments within a few weeks of each other recently, including the Twin Creeks Invitational on the Fourth of July and the Father’s Day Tournament in Livermore in mid-June.
This Pride team has played in the championship game in each of the first three tournaments they have played in this season.
Last weekend, the Pride hosted a tournament, and results from that tourney will be included in a future issue.
Following are the results from both tourneys:
Father’s Day Tournament
PRIDE 6, Livermore Smoke 1
The Pride began the tournament by beating the host team. Tanya Ferry pitched a complete game to catcher Jessica Ikerd. Livermore scored first in the top of the first, but Pride answered back with four runs in their half of the second and never looked back. Holly Turay led off the second inning with a slap hit, which was followed by walks to Sarah Cornaggia, Ferry, and Brooke Willis. Robin Nelson then came up and knocked in two runs and then scored on hits from Angelica Michel and Gennifer Giusiana. In the fourth inning, both Ferry and Nichole McCarthy scored after being walked.
Fremont Flyers 5, PRIDE 2
The Pride dropped the next game to the Fremont Flyers ina game that ended up adding to the drama in the championship game. Cornaggia pitched a good game to Turay catching, but the Pride let four runs in the fourth inning prove more than their untimely hitting, which only scored two in the second. Turay and Cornaggia were the only Pride players to score when the Pride was unable to bring in another run after a base hit to right field by McCarthy.
PRIDE 7, Hollister Heat 2
In the final game on Saturday, the Pride team fired on all cylinders to beat the Hollister Heat. Ikerd and Nelson scored in the second and fourth innings with great hitting behind them by Ferry, Michel and Cornaggia. The Pride team broke it open in the fifth with five more runs. The play of the game started with a very hard-hit ball to right centerfield by Hollister with a Heat runner on second. The runner was sent around third to score with Turay, now in right field, cutting off the ball deep in the outfield and firing home. Ikerd, knowing it was going to be a close play at home, took a few steps forward having noticed the Hollister player heading for second and fired a strike to Nelson at second base who made a great tag to stop the Heat rally and the inning.
PRIDE 8, San Jose Twisters 2
Pride started Sunday morning with a well-pitched game by Cornaggia. Jessica Ikerd led the hitting attack with a double and a triple and had three of the team’s eight RBIs.
Championship game:
PRIDE 5, Fremont Flyers 3
The Pride team had a chance to avenge its loss to the Flyers on Saturday. With the score tied at 1-1, the Pride team rallied in the fifth inning to load the bases on consecutive singles from Ikerd, Nelson and Cornaggia. Then, with two outs and a count of 0-and-2, Turay delivered a single up the middle to drive in two runs, which was not going to be enough to win this game. Cornaggia and Nelson reached base on a bunt and an error and advanced with steals and passed balls. Turay slapped in another RBI, scoring Cornaggia from third on a ball bounced high to shortstop. The Pride had 10 hits in the game and won trophies for their fathers on a great Father’s day in Livermore.
Fourth of July Tournament
Campbell Crush 5, PRIDE 4
Tanya Ferry pitched two strong innings with five strikeouts, giving up three runs. Sarah Cornaggia stepped in to pitch the last four innings. Cornaggia had three strikeouts and gave up two runs, including a single up the middle that scored the winning run for the Crush. These teams had battled to a 4-4 tie in six innings, but the Pride came up one run short in the end. In the end, this tournament played out a lot like the Father’s Day tournament with the Pride coming back to face the Crush in the Championship game on Sunday.
PRIDE 10, Cabrillo Crushers 1
Cornaggia pitched four innings with Jessica Ikerd catching for her, striking out one and allowing three scattered hits. The Pride team only managed four hits themselves, but capitalized on errors and passed balls, while stealing 11 bases to make things happen.
PRIDE 11, Los Gatos Magic 0
Ferry pitched five innings with five strikeouts and gave up no runs to start Sunday play for the Pride. Our Pride girls had 11 hits with Cher’Rae Prejean going 2-for-2, Gennifer Giusiana batting 1-for-1, and 2-for-3 performances by Tanya Ferry and Holly Turay.
PRIDE 9, Cabrillo Crushers 1
Cornaggia pitched five innings with two strikeouts and allowing only one run. With a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the third, the Pride batted through the entire order, scoring seven runs on some heads up offense, a hit from Willis and a base hit bunt from Liz Rogers.
Championship game:
PRIDE 11, Campbell Crush 1
Ferry pitched the tournament-winning game with Turay doing the catching. Ferry pitched five innings with three strikeouts and allowing only two hits and one run.
(That run came in the top of the first inning for the Crush and ended up to be the only good news for the Crush in the last game of the tournament.)
In the first inning, the Pride batters either bunted or hit, executing whatever Coach Gene Ciraulo sent them to do. Along with a few passed balls and stolen bases the girls were circling the bases throughout the inning. There were three successful bunts by Robin Nelson, Brooke Willis and Ferry. And, Ikerd, Angelica Michel, Gennifer Giusiana, and Turay all got hits. Rodgers was hit by a pitch and that brought Ikerd up to bat for the second time in the inning, still with no outs.
Giusiana hit a home run in the fifth on a ball scorched down the third base line with two outs and had all of the players and fans cheering for what ended up to be the last run scored for the Pride on the Fourth of July.
