Sunday at the P5 Patriot Games in Colorado closed this year’s outstanding event with the Elite 8 of the 18U division battling for the title.

On Saturday, the Texas Bombers organization captured the championships at the 14U and 16U levels but Sunday it would be another strong organization that has won its share of championships that would take home the 18U crown.

In today’ report, we look at the championship and how the the Final 4 games played out.

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Previous Line Drive Coverage This Week at the P5 Patriot Games (click on links below)

• Day 3 Highlights at P5 Patriot Games (June 27, 2026)
• Day 2 Highlights at P5 Patriot Games (June 26, 2026)
• Day 1 Highlights at P5 Patriot Games (June 25, 2026)

Eleven teams begin Sunday with a chance to take home the title… here’s each of the teams listed alphabetically:

• Arizona Rising – Appel
• Athletics Gold – Tamborra
• Athletics – Mercado/Smith
• Corona Angels – Tyson
• Georgia Impact – Taylor
• Impact Gold – Jackson
• Louisville Lady Sluggers – Huecker/Norwood
• Texas Bombers Gold
• Texas Glory
• UNITY – Johnson/VB
• Warrior Academy – McDonald/Mullins

We’ll have much more this week from the P5 Patriot Games including video interviews with some of the key player at the event.

Til then, here’s a recap of Day 4, the finale of the four days of the P5 Patriot Games…

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We’ll start with the semi’s and then report on the championship game which went down to the last inning…

SEMI-FINAL: Athletics – Mercado 9, Texas Glory 6.

Athletics head Dave Mercado has won his share of championships in Colorado—the team has won back-to-back titles in the Colorado Sparkler which starts this week.

Trying to make it another title win for the program—and the Athletics – Mercado team, to be sure, has won other top championships including PGF Nationals and looked strong once again on Sunday.

The team had to play three games to win it all and the day started off strong with a 10 and game that became a 10-7 win for the SoCal based team over a very good Corona Angels team.

After a two-hour break, the A’s picked it up again in the semis and fell behind 1-0 when Texas Glory corner infielder Kennedy Bradley, a Florida Gator signee, hit a two-out RBI double on a shot to deep center.

But the Athletics – Mercado squad responded quickly to tie the score when Presley Kilgore, a catcher headed to Texas A&M, walked and came around to put the A’s first run on an RBI single.  

The Athletics had a chance to do more damage but with two outs and runners on the corners, Texas Glory starting pitcher, Abby Atkinson, a 2027 grad committed to Stanford, got a strikeout to end the threat.

In the bottom of the second, the Athletics looked to score again when Aubrey McLaughlin led off the inning with a walk and Bree Carlson was hit by a pitch.

But a great play by Glory catcher Emily Sounders—a 2027 commit to Missouri—helped extinguish a potential rally when got Carlson in a rundown.

The Athletics offense, however, couldn’t be contained for long and in the third inning exploded for five runs in the 3^rd inning and scored three more in the 4^th to give the team a comfortable 9-1 lead.

Kevin Shelton’s Glory team wasn’t giving up and pushed across four runs sparked by a Presley Kilgore two RBI hit, but it wasn’t enough as the Athletics – Mercado team closed out the 9-6 win to advance to the title game.

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SEMI-FINAL: GA Impact 23, Unity – Johnson 9

That score is not a typo… the Impact scored two runs in the 1^st inning, nine runs in the 2^nd, 10 in the 3^rd and 12 in the 4^th to put this semi-final well out of reach.

Starting the scoring for the Impact was Mia Johnson, an Arkansas commit, who hit a two-run triple with two outs in the first inning.

Then, the Impact really blew open the game in the 2^nd inning when Johnson and Kadyn Gabrels both hit three run home runs with each coming when there were two outs.

Still in the bottom of the 2^nd inning, Kadyn Gabrels, headed to South Carolina, hit a three-run homer herself to push the lead to 11-0 after just two innings.

The UNITY made it a bit more interesting by scoring five runs themselves thanks to home runs by Kamryn Waters (Central Florida) and Morgan Waln (Alabama) to bring the score to 11-5

The Impact would eventually run the score to 23-5 and, taking their foot off the gas pedal, allowed four more Unity runs to make the final tally 23-9.

It’s not too often that you score nine runs and lose, but that’s what happened today to a good Unity team where it appeared the pitchers were just worn out and worn down.

There were a host of heroes for the Impact but the two most amazing performances came from Mia Johnson, who went 4-for-4 with two home runs, a triple and a double (just a single away from hitting for the cycle!) and she drove in an incredible nine runs.

Gabrels also was perfect at the plate, going 3-for-3 with a home run and two doubles to help her drive in five runs.

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18U CHAMPIONSHIP: Athletics – Mercado/Smith 6, Georgia Impact 4

Sports are crazy when you have one game where you score 23 runs and can’t be stopped and then immediately play another game and are stymied offensively for the first half of the game.

That was the case for the tremendous Impact Gold team was kept pretty well in check by Athletics – Mercado/Smith starter Daniella Boccanfuso, a 2027 Cal-Berkeley commit, and—when she struggled in the bottom of the 5^th inning– Kate Brennan, a Georgia commit, came in to close the door.

Unlike the semi-final game when the Impact scored two in the first and exploded for nine in the second, the team from the Peach State suffered two strikeouts in the first inning at the hands of Boccanfuso.

In the 2^nd inning, the Athletics looked to have something going when Mia Johnson singled to center—her fifth straight hit over two games–but she was ultimately doubled up on a soft drive to the shortstop who threw to first to get Johnson, who was moving on the pitch, out.

The Athletics put the first two runs on the board in the bottom of the 2^nd inning when Hollynn Gentry walked then, with one out, Aubrey McLaughlin tripled to center field brining to bring home Gentry.

With two outs, Jenna Caldera would also triple—hers to left center—and just outside the centerfielder’s glove to plate McLaughlin to make the score 2-0.

In the top of the 3^rd, the Athletics – Mercado/Smith pitcher would get two more strikeouts in part because of her excellent change-of-speeds to keep the Impact hitters off-balance.

The Impact had a chance to get its first run in the top of the 4^th when Tavia Robinson bunted for a single and went to second on a groundout. Jenna Rapp would then single and could have scored Robinson, but she was caught in a run-down and was called out at third base for the second out of the inning.

The score remained 2-0 until the bottom of the 5^th when the Athletics started the inning with singles by Caldera and Avery Gehrke before moving to second and third bases on an effective sac bunt by Hayden Huerta.

Bailey Goldberg would then hit a slow roller to third, but Caldera was able to score to make it 3-0 Athletics.

Catcher Chuck Masingale, who was the huge hero in the 10-7 win over the Corona Angels when she hit a three-run walk-off homer to help the A’s advance, came up big again when she would hit an RBI single to right field scoring Gehrke to make the score 4-0 with runners at the corners and just one out.

But the Athletics weren’t done–Victoria Guzman came in to run for Masingale and promptly stole second and she eventually score and by the end of the bottom of five, it was a comfortable 6-0 lead for Dave Mercado’s team.

However, the Impact didn’t give up and in the top of the 7^th made things quite interesting.

Shayla Bahr, who is headed to the Univ. of Florida, doubled off the left field wall and things looked all but over when the Athletics were able to get two outs, but the Impact showed the offensive firepower that was evident in the semi-final.

Kharisma White, a Duke commit, would single to right field to bring Bahr home to end the shutout and make the score 6-1.

Jenna Rapp would then hit a two-run homer over the left field fence and quickly the lead was cut in half, 6-3.

Pitcher Coral Williams, who is going to UCLA and had Bruins head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez watching her from the stands, came in and gave up a home run to Mia Johnson—whose no-doubter over the 230-foot left field fence, put the score at 6-4 and suddenly it looked like the Impact could make an incredible comeback.

But it was not to be.

Williams was aided by an amazing horizontal outfield catch in right field by Gehrke for one of the outs and Williams kept her wits about her and closed out the game with a strikeout to give the Athletics – Mercado/Smith team the 18U title.

How did she make it happen after the first hitter crushed a home run?

“I just put it behind me,” she said after the game. “We still had the lead, and I knew I had to get it done, but I trust in my team and we came through.”

Coach Mercado admitted after the team had its photo taken in the blue P5 Patriot Games champion t-shirts and holding the championship banner that it stepped up its play when it counted:

“We’ve done better defensively and had some issues with it this week, but in this game, we played much better and did what we needed to do to win,” he said.

“Our team set it up to bring Corol in to close it out and everyone stepped up when needed to give us the championship win.”

But the Athletics – Mercado/Smith team won’t have much time to celebrate and rest. The team will take Monday off and then on Tuesday begin the push in the Colorado Sparkler to not only win it all, but to try and make it three Sparkler titles in a row.

You could say that the P5 Patriot Games championship would be a great way to shoot for two championship runs in Colorado in a two-week period.

With this well-rounded team who elevates its game when needed, don’t put it past them.

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Media

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Path to the P5 Patriot Games Title – 18U

Championship

• Athletics – Mercado 6, Impact Gold – Taylor 4

Semi-Final

• Athletics – Mercado/Smith 9, Texas Glory 6
• Georgia Impact – Taylor 23, UNITY – Johnson 5

Elite 8

• Athletics – Mercado/Smith 10, Corona Angels – Tyson 7
• Texas Glory 5, Louisville Lady Sluggers – Huecker/Norwood 3
• Georgia Impact – Taylor 7, Texas Bombers Gold 4
• UNITY – Johnson 8, Warrior Academy – McDonald/Mullins 6

Play In (to Elite 8)

• Corona Angels – Tyson 10, Athletics Gold – Tamborra 7
• Louisville Lady Sluggers 10, EPIC National – Smith 4
• Georgia Impact – Taylor 7, Arizona Rising – Appel 4
• UNITY – Johnson VB 9, Impact Gold – Jackson 8