CALIFORNIA THUNDER 18 GOLD (VAN KIRK): NEWS and Info about THUNDER!

Best of luck to Brandee Ybarra, Marissa Hiller and Vanessa Molina who received a special invitation to participate in the Adidas Futures Camp in Utah during the weekend of Aug 22 and 23. They are 3 of 114 athletes participating in front of 100's of college coaches. They will play 8 games in two days and conduct skills and drills before the eyes of college recruiters.

The coaching staff is very proud of our Thunder team. We made a great run at the Champions Cup, a very prestigious showcase, with some of the nations best teams competing. After 16 long hours at the ballpark, we suffered a heartbreaking 5-4 loss in the final inning of the game to the Desperados. Our overall finish is tied for 17th out of 96 teams participating in the elimination bracket.

This is a very young team with a lot of talent that will be very good in 2009/2010.

Thank you for a strong finish!!!  - Valerie

America’s Finest City Tournament, Escondido, CA - Jan. 19 - 20, 2008 - Following is a write-up posted on spysoftball.com recapping one of our games: 

CA Thunder Gold Val 5, Valley Breeze 2.  Kate Jablonski (09) was effective in both games we saw, and Thunder was one of the better teams.  Thunder loaded the bases in the first inning we saw when Amber Lopez (08) beat out a hit.  Tarra Smith (08) hit into a fielder’s choice to out a runner at home, but, Yvette Bravo (08) cracked a bases-clearing 3-run double; she was out trying to stretch a triple.  In the next inning, Amanda Perez (signed) doubled and scored on a triple by Tara Woodall (09), who scored on a single by Alyssa Ramirez (09).