July 8, 2001-
Sunday evening at the Spring-Klein Softball Complex, Mystixx beat Hit-Away to win the Houston ASA U16-A Metro Championship by a score of 2-0. Coach Ricky Garza said, "this was the 4th ASA Metro Championship for this Mystixx Team. They won Houston Metro as a 10U team in 1995, 12U team in 1997, 14U team in 1999 and now 16U team in 2001." The Mystixx will play in the F.A.S.T. Nationals in Kissamee, Florida instead of playing for a berth to the ASA U16-A Nationals in Normal, Illinois in the ASA Regionals.
Coach Garza said, " that the Championship was a team effort." "For example, today the bottom of the order did the work!" "I just let the player's play." "The catchers call their own game." "I let the defense talk to each other and they come up with their own ideas." "I feel this approach better prepares these player's for college ball." "I just organize the practices." "The majority of the girls are in Honor Classes at their respective high schools."
In the Championship game, the Mystixx scored in the 3rd inning to break the 0-0 tie. The Mystixx 2nd baseman, Jamie Adams hit a ground ball to the Hit-Away short stop (Tanya Hooser), who threw the ball a little high to first base. The first baseman pulled her foot to make the catch and Jamie was safe at first on an error. Hannah Garza then drew a walk. Becki delaGarza hit a line drive over the second baseman for a single. Jamie scored on the single to put Mystixx up 1-0.
Mystixx added an insurance run in the 4th inning. Stephanie Figgars led off the inning with a single up the middle. Terrah Rode was called out when she tried to sacrifice bunt on 3rd strike and fouled the ball instead. A tired Amanda Scarborough threw two wild pitches to Jamie Ries that got by the catcher both times. Stephanie moved to 2nd base on the first pitch and to 3rd base on the 2nd wild pitch.
Hit-Away played hard through-out the whole game. They challenged Mystixx all the way to the last inning. In the 6th inning, Hit-Away's Danielle Belaman bunted for a base hit. Allisa Harper then hit a fly to the left fielder. Amanda Scarborough then hit a hard line drive back at the pitcher's (Ursual Mares) chest. Somehow Ursual was able to get her glove up and deflect the ball. Mares looked around and found the ball. She then threw to first but Amanda was already there! With runners on 1st and 2nd base, Natalie Ramirez hit a hard grounder to Stephanie Figgars who turned around and threw the ball to Sharonda McDonald for the 2nd out. Then Megan Gibson grounded out to Sharonda to end the inning.
Sharonda covers plenty of ground at
short stop because of her speed. She
finished 3rd in the 200 meters sprint at
the 5A State meet this Spring.
In the 7th inning, Christa Raley drew a walk. Then Tanya Hooser hit a ground ball to 2nd baseman who threw to Sharonda for the force out. Nicole Collins walked. Kelly Corliss enter the game as a pinch runner for Nicole. Ricky Garza then made a pitching switch. He replaced Ursual Mares with Dee Jay Nelson. Dee Jay struck-out Bridgett Fuentez for out number two. Danielle Betancourt singled to load the bases. Allissa Harper hit a ball right back to Dee Jay who threw to first the get the final out.
Amanda Scarborough pitched the whole game for Hit-Away. Amanda had 5 strike-outs, 3 walks and gave up 3 singles.
Stephanie Figgars had two of the singles for Mystixx. In the 2nd inning she singled between third and short stop. In the 4th inning, she singled up the middle. Becki delaGarza got the clutch hit, the line drive single to right field that brought in the game winning RBI.
Ursual Mares pitched 6 1/3 innings before being relieved by Dee Jay Nelson. Ursual had two strike-outs, three walks and gave up two hits in the 6th inning. Danielle Betancourt led off the inning with a bunt single and Amanda Scarborough had the hard drive shot right back at
Ursual. Dee Jay had a strike-out and gave up a single to Danielle also.
Hitway reached the Championship game by first beating Texas Explosion Thursday night by a score of 9-1. Then then beat Cy-Fair Intruders 3-2 on Friday night. Saturday, Hit-Away defeated the Katy Cruisers 4-0 to win their side of the Winner's Bracket. Sunday morning, Hit-Away lost an International Tie Breaker Game 2-0 to the Mystixx. Dee Jay Nelson got the win on the mound for Mystixx. Megan Gibson pitched the whole game for Hit-Away. Megan had 7 strike-outs,1 walk and gave up 4 singles. Megan's fastball was radar at 61 mph.
Hit-Away then defeated the Storm 5-3. Amanda Scarborough pitched the whole game. She had 4 strike-outs, no walks and 7 hits. Amanda's fastball was radar at 63 mph. Hit-Away beat the Mystixx 1-0 before losing 0-2 to Mystixx in the Final. Megan Gibson got the win on the mound for Hitaway. Kristin Bailey pitched the first 4 innings giving up no runs, 4 hits and 1 walk. Ursual Mares relieved Kristin in the 5th inning.
Ursual gave up the gave winning single and a walk. She had 3 strike-outs.
Mystixx reached the Championship game by first defeating Spring-Klein Velocity by a score of 5-1.
They then beat the Spring-Klein Hawks 11-2. Mystixx beat Texas Storm 6-0.
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