If you looked at the list of the 29 standout 18U teams that played Thursday through today at The P5 Patriot Games, you’d have seen the Aces team coached by Ryan and Taylor Taylor at the top alphabetically.

If you look at the list of those 18U teams Saturday evening, you’d still find the Aces atop all the others but for a very different reason: the powerhouse program with some of the top 2025’s, ‘26s and ‘27’s in the country steamrolled its way through the tournament held in Fort Collins, Colo.

The championship game 5-2 win against another impressive team over the last three days, the Texas Glory – Shelton squad, was a competitive and fitting end to the event, but the other scores were indicative of how dominating the Ace’s team played both on offense and defense.

Other than a 5-5 tie Friday afternoon against a game Warrior Academy – McDonald team, the finals for the Aces read as followers starting Thursday morning going up through the semifinal game Saturday mid-day: 7-0, 8-0, 9-0, 10-1 and 12-1.

Add in the tie and today’s title victory, the Aces outscored their opponents 56 to 9 or an average score of 8 to 1 with three of the seven games being shutouts and two others seeing just one run given up by the pitching staff.

That’s domination.

 “The team played really well in all facets of the game,” Coach Ryan Taylor told Line Drive after the game.

“We had great defense and pitching and the offense was very strong up and down the lineup.  It was a complete team effort at a tough event and the girls competed hard!”

And a good example of that was the pitching today by the strong Aces’ trio of Allyssa Parker, a 2025 grad signed with Oklahoma; Cyarah Dotts, an uncommitted 2027 and Reagan Vokoun, a 2025 signee with Central Florida.

That depth in the circle was the secret to his team’s success over the last three days, Coach Taylor stressed.

“We have a really deep bullpen that allowed us to throw different looks all week and keep arms fresh,” he stated.

As dominating (there’s that word again) as the arms were, the bats were equally strong especially in bracket play on Saturday.

Highlighting the offensive fireworks were the accomplishments of:

• Sid Forrester, a 2025 outfield headed to the Univ. of Missouri who had six RBIs;
• Dally Engle, a 2025 catcher signed with Louisiana-Monroe who slugged two home runs and drove in six and
• Kelly Bogart, a 2026 outfielder who will play at Nebraska who brought home four runners.

The Aces coaches and players won’t have long to celebrate the championship run, however; on Tuesday they play in the Alliance Super Cup and then in the Boulder IDT which runs through the rest of the week.

*****

In the two younger age divisions, 16U and 14U, it was a sweep by the always competitive Athletics – Mercado organization based our of Southern Calif.

• In 16U, the A’s Mercado Hovermale/Tidd team won one-run thrillers in the semis and finals to top the Louisville Sluggers 5-4 and the Impact Gold – Jazz 10-9.
• At 14U, the Athletics Mercado/Tidd squad topped a strong Birmingham Thunderbolts squad 5-3.

Line Drive will have championship game recaps tomorrow and much more from the event in the upcoming week.

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball