Amateur Softball Association: Gold National Championship

Only 24-Teams Remain in Contention at Gold National Championship

Oklahoma City, Okla. – The field of teams at the 2007 ASA Girls’ 18-Under Gold Fast Pitch National Championship was cut to 24 after day three of bracket play at the ASA Hall of Fame Complex. Eight teams remain in the winner’s bracket including the defending national champions, OC Batbusters of Santa Ana, Calif., who defeated the Beverly Bandits of Orland Park, Ill. 2-1 in eight innings to move one step closer to their second consecutive ASA National Championship.

In one of the most anticipated games of the day, the Batbusters and Bandits battled into extra innings in front of a standing room only crowd on Field 4 at the ASA Hall of Fame Complex. Donna Kerr earned the win in the circle after allowing just one run on four hits with 11 strikeouts. GiOnna DiSalvatore led the OC Batbusters offensively going 2-for-4 and drove in the game winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning. Lauren Delaney was tagged with the loss allowing one run on four hits in two innings of relief work.

The Batbusters are not the only past ASA Champion remaining in the winner’s bracket. The Shamrocks of Vienna, Va., the 2005 ASA National Champion, are 3-0 and on course to meet the defending champs in winners bracket finals. The Shamrocks cruised past Ultimate Gold of Purcell, Okla., 7-0, on Thursday to remain unbeaten. They will face the Washington Lady Hawks of Puyallup, Wash., on Friday in hopes of earning a spot in the winner’s bracket finals.

Other teams that remain in the winner’s bracket with a record of 3-0 include Texas Aces Gold of Pearland, Texas, Gold Coast Hurricanes of Plantation, Fla., San Diego Renegades of San Diego, Calif., Corona Angels-Marty of Corona, Calif., and Worth Firecrackers of Huntington Beach, Calif.

Teams who were eliminated on Thursday were Glacier NW Gold of Vancouver, Wash., CY-Fair Intruders of Houston, Texas, Michigan Finesse of Sterling Heights, Mich., Nightmare Gold of Hamilton, N.J., Texas Impact Gold of Houston, Texas, Arizona Hot Shots Gold-Gatti of Tempe, Ariz., Victory USA of Fountain Valley, Calif., Tennessee Eagles of Chattanooga, Tenn., KC Peppers of Olathe, Kan., Arizona Desert Thunder Gold of Tucson, Ariz., San Jose Sting of San Jose, Calif., San Jose Strikkers of San Jose, Calif., LA Voo Doo of River Ridge, La., Carolina Lady Blues of Charlotte, N.C., Katy Heat of Katy, Texas and Nebraska Sizzle of Elkhorn, Neb.

The Girls’ 18-Under Gold National Championship continues on Friday with 22 games scheduled. At the end of the day only eight teams will remain in contention for the 2007 ASA Girls Gold National Championship. Box Scores and Play-by-Play of all the games can be found on the official tournament website gold.asasoftball.com. Also fans can listen to radio broadcasts of all games played on the stadium field by click on the radio link on the ASA Gold webpage.

ASA Girls’ 18-Under Gold Fast Pitch National Championship (Day Three Bracket Results)

California Cruisers 2 *Glacier NW Gold 0

LA Voo Doo 3 *Cy-Fair Intruders 0

So Cal Pumas 5 *Michigan Finesse 1

Carolina Lady Blues 4 *Nightmare Gold 3

St. Louis Chaos 5 *Texas Impact 4 (10 innings)

Katy Heat 8 *Arizona Hot Shots – Gatti 2

Southern Force 4 *Victory USA 3

Nebraska Sizzle 5 *Tennessee Eagles 4

Gold Coast Hurricanes 3 Texas Glory Gold 0

San Diego Renegades 4 Beach Girls 0

Corona Angels – Marty 4 So Cal Athletics 2

Worth Firecrackers 8 Atlanta Vipers 0

Washington Lady Hawks 2 Texas Storm-Dixon 1

Shamrocks 7 Ultimate Gold 0

Texas Aces Gold 3 So Cal Breakers 1

OC Batbusters 2 Beverly Bandits 1

So Cal Explosion 10 *KC Peppers 2

So Cal Choppers 5 *Arizona Desert Thunder Gold 2

San Jose Sting 4 *Valley Breeze 0

Texas Storm-Durham 1 *San Jose Strikkers 0

California Cruisers 4 *LA Voo Doo 2

So Cal Pumas 3 *Carolina Lady Blues 0

St. Louis Chaos 8 *Katy Heat 4

Southern Force 8 *Nebraska Sizzle 0

*Teams eliminated from the tournament