 |
Admin
LLB Datacenter
Last updated
12-28-09 04:23 PM
 
Palmdale Little League
(661) 285-2166
P.O. Box 900732
55th Street East & Avenue R-4
Palmdale, California
93590
|
|
|
|
Sunday, August 21
2005 Big League Softball World Series - It's the second title for AV, first since 1996
It's the second title for AV, first since 1996
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Sunday, August 21, 2005.
By STEVE UNGREY Special to The Valley Press
KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The moment Sarah Kahn will always remember: touching home plate firmly by jumping on it with both feet. The painful memory for Charleston, W. Va., Big League softball team: knowing it had rallied to tie the score in the top of the seventh inning, only to see Kahn untie the game with a storybook ending. The game Antelope Valley District 51 will always remember: the one where Kahn's seventh-inning home-run heroics gave the West Region champions the world title, 3-2, over Charleston Saturday at Vanderberg Park. It was Antelope Valley's second world championship and first since 1996. Kahn, one of the reserve players on Antelope Valley's roster, got a chance to start the championship game at shortstop and bat seventh. It had been a game of mixed emotions for Kahn, as her error in the fourth inning led to Charleston's first run of the game. But Antelope Valley's teammates rallied around Kahn and propelled her to the magic moment she will always remember. "About three-fourths of the way down the first-base line I looked to my left to see if the ball was out of the park and I saw people leaving the stands so I knew it was gone," Kahn said. The basepath coaches, manager Scott Rutledge and coach Ray Beltrami, knew immediately that the ball had left Vanderberg Park. It took a while for the girls to realize it, as they slowly came out of the dugout in a mass. "It was just so shocking," third baseman Brooke Stix said. "It took us a second to realize we had won the game." "If you saw Ray and I running over, we knew we had won the game," Rutledge said. "Our hitters came through for us when we needed them to do it." Kahn herself had been temporarily removed from the game for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the fifth, but she got another chance to bat in the seventh and made the most of it. "I didn't know whether or not I'd get the chance to bat again," Kahn said. "I wanted this right here and now, in the back of my mind I thought we might be going into extra innings." Jessica Hamilton's run-scoring single scored Rebekah Rose, who had reached base via Kahn's error, in the third inning to give Charleston a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the sixth, Antelope Valley scored twice. Nikki Cordova singled and Katie Cornelson doubled, putting runners on second and third with one out. Stix then hit into a fielder's choice and scored Cordova from third base to tie the game at 1-1, and Kelsie Blankemeyer's long sacrifice fly to center scored Cornelson to put Antelope Valley up 2-1. It looked like the lead would stand, but Charleston touched Antelope Valley pitcher Laura Calvert for a run in the top of the seventh. Sara Cobb, pinch-running for Diana Humphreys, scored on a single by Lauren Nichols. Then came Kahn's big blow, the one that ended the game for Antelope Valley and lifted Calvert's spirits. "I was so excited, so happy," Calvert said. "My heart skipped a beat, I guess it was love at first home run. After the game was tied at 2-2 I was disappointed because it was mostly my pitching that tied it up, but after Sarah hit that homer I just wanted to faint." Kahn later autographed her jersey with a personal message and gave it to a Netherlands player. Most people might think she'd want to keep the jersey, but she already had the home-run ball and a piece of the ESPN2 microphone. ESPN2 is broadcasting the game on a tape-delayed basis Aug. 29 at 2 p.m. (Pacific time). "If it's going to brighten another player's day, that is happy for me," Kahn said. "It's a fantastic, great experience and one people sometimes get to do just once in their entire life."
|
|
