Twelve of the top club organizations in Northern California got together last weekend (September 11-13) in Salinas, Calif. for the 2026 PGF Organizational Challenge for the chance to win $15,000 for the overall winner and $5,000 for the runner-up.

Each club program brought teams at the 14U, 16U and 18U age divisions

The prize money was based on a points system awarded for pool and bracket play (10 points for each win) as well as additional points for wins in the quarterfinals (40 points), semi’s (60) and championship (100 points)   

So who went home that much richer?

The LTG Lions took home the $15,000 champion prize for having the most points (600 pts) and the Lady Magic program took home the $5,000 runner up prize for having the second most points (400 points).

Lady Magic co-head coach Lindsey Ziegenhirt-Munoz is a fan of the event and how it’s produced:

“The Org Challenge is always a well run, competitive event that we enjoy playing in every fall,” she says.

“As the first event of the season we play, our girls are hungry to get back out on the field.”

One of the highlights of this year’s edition was her 18U team winning that age division.

“Our 18s team came out swinging and put on a really exciting offensive showing,” she continues.

“They hit 18 home runs in six games! Our 14u Bigley team had a strong event as well finishing 2nd and our 16s had a good start to the fall, and though they didn’t finish as well as they wanted to, they had a lot of good moments to build off as we move through the fall.”

“As an org, we left the event feeling excited about what’s to come this season!”

Interestingly, that’s how the 2025 PGF Organizational Challenge went as well with the LTG Lions taking 1^st place and the Lady Magic finishing as runners up but the points total was much closer—375 to 370.

The annual event is produced by Armando Barragan, the General Manager of the Salinas Sports Complex and also the GM for the California Storm organization, formerly the Salinas Storm, which is the host program.

This year was the 10^th year the event has been run after its initial start in 2017.

Here are the 36 teams that competed representing the dozen NorCal travel ball programs:

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Media