Wow… just… wow.

If you’re looking for two exhilarating softball games that sell the sport, then the PGF Platinum Nationals on Friday night were those games.

Featuring four elite teams from across the nation, you had one championship come down to pitching so good, it was a five-inning perfect game!

And in the finale, you had it come down to the very last pitch, which ended the championship on a walk-off home run!

Here’s a look at both of the championship games that were thrilling in totally different ways…

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PGF 18U PLATINUM NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

It was a battle of “Athletics:” the Athletics Gold Tamborra/Freeman 18U team from Georgia versus the Athletics Mercado – Potter/Hovermale squad from Southern Calif. in the last softball game of the day.

In the cool air at Colonel Bill Barber Memorial Park in Irvine, the two teams battled with the smallest of margins making the difference.

Fielding errors—four of them in the first few innings alone—accounted for the Athletics Mercado – Potter/Hovermale team putting two runs up on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second — without getting a hit.

To start the game, the black clad Mercado team threatened with bases loaded in the bottom of the 1^st inning, but starting Tamborra/Freed pitcher Ansley Hall, a Middle Tennessee State signee, worked out of the jam.

However, in the bottom of the second inning with bases loaded and two outs, a grounder to the Tamborra/Freemen shortstop was thrown to second base and mishandled, allowing two runners to score to put Athletics Mercado ahead 2-0.

In the bottom of the 3^rd inning, Tamborra/Freeman team brought in Riley Huckaby, a lefty signee to Florida Gulf Coast, in to pitch and she held the A’s Mercado team scoreless for the next five innings.

The Athletics – Tamborra/Freeman team had its chances, however, to do some damage to get on the scoreboard.

In the top of the 4^th, the visitors wearing white unis with green and gold trim, got two runners on with two outs as Emily Goboski, a 2028 middle infielder, hit a hard grounder to short that bounced into left center followed by Riley Huckaby shooting a ball up the middle that eluded the glove of pitcher Mia Valbuena, a senior signed with Michigan, in the circle.

With runners on second and first and two outs, however, the 4^th inning threat was ended as Valbuena got her sixth strikeout to leave the two runners stranded.

The stat-line at that point was a strange one:

• 2 runs, 0 hits and 0 errors for the California-based Athletics,
• 0 runs, 2 hits and 4 errors for the Georgia-based A’s.

In the top of the 5^th Valbuena, got her seventh and eighth K’s in her five innings in the circle to that point.

The bottom of the 5^th saw Athletics Mercado – Potter/Hovermale get a leadoff walk by Kylie Tufua, who’s headed to Oregon, and she stole second but was left stranded there.

In the top of the 6^th, Donee Morain, the speedy leadoff hitter going to Georgia Tech, reached on a bunt as she beat out the throw. Eva Davis hit a flair to center that landed and an error by the right fielder loaded the bases with no outs.

Emily Bogoski then hit a shot up the middle for run No. 1 for the Tamborra team, but a runner was thrown out at the plate to get out the second across.

Here’s a clip of that busy play…

Eventually, though, Errie Simmons singled to right field to tie the game 2-2 with one out and runners on the corners.

An infield grounder to the pitcher and throw to first got the second out and Savannan Langley walked with a full count to load the bases with two outs, but Valbuena induced a groundout to shortstop to end the inning.

In the bottom of the 6^th, the Tamborra team brought in its third pitcher of the evening, Jessica Epps headed to Furman, and she produced a 1-2-3 inning—the final out on a full out when she threw a beautiful change-up to freeze the hitter.

It was anyone’s game going into the top of the 7^th inning and the atmosphere of the game was electric on both sides.

Again, the stat-line continued to be very unusual with Athletics Tamborra having two runs on six hits and four errors, while Athletics Mercardo had two runs on NO hits and one error.

Valbuena got a 1-2-3 inning aided by the third out being a running catch from right-fielder Kylee Hill who sprinted into foul ground to make the out.

In the bottom of the 7^th, the Athletics Mercado team saw the leadoff hittere double to left with one out and Tufua was intentionally walked to bring up Lacy VanTuinen, the Mississippi State commit.

Then everything stopped.

With the game tied and two runners on base, Lacy crushed a no-doubt walk-off home run that had her teammates sprinting to home plate to welcome her.

Here’s the video of that homer and Lacie circling the bases…

… here’s a clip shot by one of the Athletics Mercado players in the dugout during the home run celebration…

… and here’s our Line Drive Media exclusive interview with the winning pitcher, Valbuena, and the home run hero, VanTuinen, after the game:

Winning pitcher Valbuena went the distance and in her seven innings pitched, she gave up six hits, two runs (one unearned) with nine strikeouts and two walks.

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PGF 16U PLATINUM NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

The first PGF championship of Week 1 was held 5 pm in Bill Barber Park as Unity 16U – Attar/Johnson faced the Lady Dukes – Bryant team.

It was showcase of total dominance by the Unity – Attar/Johnson team which has been unstoppable all week and ended the PGF Nationals on a high note as the game was a five-inning run rule victory with the final score of 8-0.

Here’s how dominating the game and the week was for Head Coach Adam Attard and his staff:

* the team went undefeated in its 10 wins during the event
* Unity never trailed once during the PGF Nationals tournament
* the Unity opponents were outscored 112 to 5 and three of those allowed runs came in pool play.
* in Friday night’s title win, Unity scored in all five innings.
* eight players on the team had hits in the finale
* seven players had RBIs

* Mak Savage was the starting pitcher and pitched four perfect innings with two strikeouts before being replaced by Kenzie Jackson who pitched a perfect final inning to complete the five-inning no-hit, no-walk perfecto.

Overall, it was a great week for the four Unity teams: the two at 18U, Premier and Platinum respectively, and this 16U Platinum teach won the National Championship.

Unity jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first and, in the top of the second, it tacked on another run as Avery Munson’s hit brought in Ashlyn Giessman to make the score 3-0.

In the top of the 3rd, Danielle Neve singled to lead off the inning and Emily Stone ran for her. Next, Cameron Percy doubled home a run and Savage helped her own cause when she tripled to bring home another run to make it 5-0 in the top of the 3^rd inning.

Shortly after, Addison Rydin scored on sac fly by Bella Attard to put the score 6-0 after two and a half innings.

Top fourth, Unity added another run to make score 7-0 meaning Unity had scored in every inning: two in the first, one in the second, three in the third and one in the fourth to make it 7-0.

Of those who had a hit of those eight players who got at least one, Leah Catto went 2-for-3 with an RBI, Camron Piercy went 1-for-2 with two runs scored and an RBI and starting pitcher Savage went 2-for-3 with the triple.

Here’s the closing out for the national champs…

… and here’s an interview with Savage talking about her dominating team…

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Media