It’s Championship Saturday in Irvine, Calif. as the first of four games took place this morning at Deanna Manning Stadium in Bill Barber Park.

The first game of the day was the PGF 16U Premier championship between the Athletics Mercado – Hovermale/Tidd team out of Southern California and the Hotshots – Galloway from Texas.

The Hotshots looked to score in the top of the first inning when, with two outs and runners on first and second, infielder Caroline Roth singled to lefty but a great throw by Athletics left fielder Tiffany Villegas nailed the would-be first run of the game at the plate.

The game was scoreless until the top of the 3^rd inning when the Hotshots scored on a double by Bayleigh Taylor allowing Louisiana Tech commit Rhilynn McCoy to put the first run of the game on the board.

The lead was short-lived, however, as the Athletics plated two in the bottom of the 3^rd to take a 2-1 lead.

Jenna Caldera lead off with a bunt single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. She came around to score on a deep double to the outfield by Hayden Huerta to score the first run for the A’s.

In a somewhat controversial call, Charlize Masingale was called out on a swinging strike by the home plate umpire but the first base ump said it was a foul ball allowing the 2027 hitter a second life and she took advantage of the opportunity by lining a sharp single to left to bring in Huerta to tie the game.

The Hotshots evened the score at 2-2 in the top of the fifth as Gracee Brewer singled to lead off the inning and would advance on an infield error. McCoy would sacrifice moving Brewer to third and she would come around to score on a hard-hit ball to shortstop that ate up the infielder and allowed Brewer to come around for the run.

The game remained at 2-2 until the bottom of the 7^th inning when Villegas led off with a single and then went to second on a sac bunt by Caldera.

Designated hitter Teuila Jae Eteaki, a 2028 from Texas, was brought in and the coaching move paid off perfectly when she lined the up the middle to bring Villegas home and give the Athletics the national title.

Impressively, it was the team’s second PGF National Championship in a row and in those two years the squad has gone 20-0 at PGF.

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball

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Here’s our interview after the championship victory with Head Coach Brian Tidd, catcher Charlize “Chuck” Masingale, Teuila Jaelynn (“Jae”) Eteaki and pitcher Daniella Boccanfuco: