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June 13 , 2004 - Magic Gold is comprised primarily of Elkins High School Softball players. Since
Elkins just finished winning the 5A Texas State Championship in softball, you might think
Magic Gold would be flat in Killeen. If so, you underestimated the character of these Elkins
girls.
After Magic Gold lost their opening 8:00 am Saturday morning game, they won 5 consecutive games in
the loser's bracket before facing KC Peppers. They beat Houston Power, Texas Hawks Gold, Austin Storm Blue,
Colorado Stars and Blast Gold (1-0).
On the other Hand the K.C. Peppers spend most of their time in the winner's bracket where
they beat the Outlaws, Texas Terminators, Texas Elite ESC and Lil Saints before losing to the
Georgia Fire.
The winner of the 10:30 am Sunday game would automatically qualify one of these teams for
the ASA Gold Nationals in Marietta Georgia. So a lot was riding on this game. It was
scoreless until the 7 inning when the Peppers broke it open. Tonya Callahan singled up
the middle. Then Nicole Washburn laid down a sacrifice bunt. Macie Morrows who had been
awesome the whole game, fields the bunt and turns and throws to Jaime Hinshaw covering
2nd base to get the force out. Tonya barely beat the throw and was safe. Cynthia
Verhulst then hit a line drive to right field to load the bases. Lindsey Thorpe single up the middle
to bring in a run. Bases were still loaded. Ashley Killeen hit a grounder to pitcher Ragan Blake, who made
a bad throw to the catcher. Two more runs scored. Ragan managed to get both Katelyn Cummings
and Teddi Ewing to pop-up. Then Cali Stratten hit a line drive in the gap between left and center field
scoring two more runs. The Magic Coach then brought in Mallory Lynch to relieve Ragan Blake.
The onslaught continued. Valerie Chapple hit a triple to right center scoring two more runs.
Tonya Callahan hit a double to the left center gap which scored a run. Nicole Washburn singled
to right field which scored another run. Lauren Kebely was substituted for Nicole on the base path.
Mallory Lynch then struck-out Cynthia Verhulst to end the inning.
Magic was the home team and still had to bat. Cynthia Verhulst struck-out Natalie Hewlett,
Brittany Taylor amd Alyssa Garza to end the game.
It looked like Magic Gold might score first in the 6th inning. Reagan Towell hit a ground ball
that looked like it was going to make it through the hole between the 2nd baseman and 2nd base.
However Teddi Ewing made a great play getting to the ball but then made a bad throw which allowed
Reagan to be safe. Jamie Hinshaaw then dragged the ball down the 1st base line and
used her speed to beat the throw to first. Courtney Cornett sacrifice bunt moved Reagan and Jamie
to 3rd and 2nd base. Macie Morrow popped up to the short stop for Out No. 2. Pitcher Cynthia Verhulst
then intentionally walked Erin Howe to load the bases. Rachel Isenhower hit a soft grounder to Cynthia
Verhulst who threw to the catcher to get the force out at the plate.
Cynthia Verhulst pitched a 3 hitter. She had 7 strike-outs and gave-up the one intentional walk to
Erin Howe. College Sports Exposure radared Cynthia fastball at 63 mph and off-speed at 52 mph in
the 5th inning.
Ragan Blake looked unstoppable until the 7th inning. She 4 strike-outs and gave-up two hits and
two walks before the 7th inning. Ragan gave-up 4 hits in the 7th inning. Mallory Lynch gave-up
3 hits in the 7th inning. College Sports Exposure radared Ragan in the 6th inning. Ragan was
throwing her rise ball and fastball between 56 and 59 mph. Ragan also has an excellent off-speed.
Erin Howe and Jamie Hinshaw got the only hits for Magic. Erin signed with Stanford
University and Jamie with Texas A&M in November. Erin hit a grounder in the gap between the 2nd baseman and 1st
baseman in the 4th inning. Jamie dragged out a single in the 6th inning.
Cali Stratten and Katelyn Cummings got hits in other innings beside the 7th inning. Katelyn hit a Texas
Leaguer behind 1st base for a double in the 3rd inning. Cali hit a line drive single down the 3rd
base line in the 6th inning.
In the other looser bracket game going on at the same time, Impact Gold from Spring, Texas beat
the Lil Saints 2-1. This win qualified Impact Gold for ASA Gold Nationals in Marietta, Georgia later
this summer in August. The other three qualifiers were KC Peppers, Georgia Fire and Oregon Sun Supply.
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