There’s a reason they play seven innings.

After a quiet top of the first inning for the Texas Blaze—the visiting team in a game that was the first and only one of the five championship games in Week 2 that didn’t have at least one Cali team—the Birmingham Thunderbolts 2030 team came up to bat and looked like they were late and in a hurry to catch their flight home to Alabama.

Right fielder Rosie Wilson led off with line drive single to center for Head Coach Jeff Wilkerson’s team followed by center fielder Jazlynn Skanes singling to left. Pitcher and and clean-up hitter Aaliyah Hayes then doubled to score Wilson for the game’s first run.

Shortstop Lizzy Johnson hit a hard ground ball up the middle to plate Skanes and Hayes to make 3-0 and it looked like the game could get away quickly from the Blaze.

However, the key to the game happened in the bottom of the first inning as Head Coach Felicia Harrington made a pitching change and brought in Olivia Donner, which proved to be the difference in the game.

Donner would shut down the Bolts to end the first inning after the home team clad in Gold and Purple had produced four hits and three earned runs, but after that it was all Donner.

The Class of 2030 right-hander would give up seven hits in her 6.2 innings pitched with just one walk while striking out six.

And no runs allowed in 6.2 innings pitched.

The key to her dominating performance, all agreed, was her effective mixing of speeds and devastating change-up that kept Bolts hitters off-balance all game long.

“I felt they (the opposing hitters) weren’t getting it” Donner said after the victory, “but if I missed my spots, I knew my defense had my back.”

Still, after being down 3-0 after one, the offensive had some work to do.

The Blaze threated to put its first run on the board in the top of the 3^rd inning when Emerie Loera reached on an error and Blair Ranly singled. With one out Loera stole third and the Blaze had runners on the corners when the Bolts’ Hayes induced a pop out in foul ground to third baseman EK Grosvenor and a soft fly ball to second to end the threat.

The situation seemed similar in the top of the 5^th when the Blaze loaded the bases with two outs, but the outcome was much different this stanza.

Morgan Henson singled to open the inning and moved to second on a soft flare to left field by Avery Cox. A sac bunt moved Henson and Cox to third and second and with one out. Avery Jewell flied to right fielder Rosei Wilson who threw a bullet to home plate to force Henson to stay at third and when Presley Copeland walked to load the bases with two outs the Bolts hoped that they could escape another situation with runners in scoring position.

Not this time.

Loera came up against Hayes and hit a hard ball over second that brought in two runs to tighten the score to 3-2, but the momentum was certainly on the Blaze’s side.

In the top of the 5^th inning, the Blaze batted around with Kennedy Keel starting the inning with a shot down the first base line that hit the bag for a single. She would steal second and advance to third on a wild pitch which seemed to energize not only the Blaze dugout, but the team’s fans from Texas.

The team would end up scoring four runs and forcing a pitching change but that didn’t seem to stem the momentum as a one out sac by Morgan Henson tied the game at 3-3 but the Blaze offense was just getting started.

Cox would double to bring home Sophia Montemayor who had reached on a bunt single and moved into scoring position on a steal of second.

The Blaze would move into the lead on an RBI triple by Maddie Patterson and would score another run on a single by Presley Copeland to bring home Cox. On a single by Blair Ranly, Patterson would score and, after trailing 3-2 heading into the top of the 5^th, the Blaze had doubled up the Bolts with a 6-3 score.

The Bolts wouldn’t go down without a fight, however. In the bottom of the inning, the team put runners on first and second with one out, but Donner would get a strikeout and a groundout to third to stem the threat.

The Blaze added run No. 7 in the top of the 6^th inning as a fielding error allowed Cox to scoot home from second and added three more insurance runs to clinch the win.

It was a rewarding title game for Coach Harrington and her Blaze team who told Line Drive afterwards:

“We knew we could come back (after getting down by three early),” she said confidently.

“We knew we’d give everything we had and would go the full seven innings.”

And that they did with 10 unanswered runs to take home some nice souvenirs from their time in Southern California.

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball

Check out our video compilation of sights and sounds around the 12U Premier championship game courtesy of Shannon Eads…