Po‘okela Softball: My Site News

by Bob Brownne/TP staff

The preliminary rounds of fastpitch softball competition in Tracy and Stockton this week narrowed down a field of 70 teams to 24 of the top 12-and-under teams in the western U.S.

By Saturday evening, only six teams will be left to compete for the Amateur Softball Association Western National Championship. And that’s just in the 12-and-under bracket.

The ASA Western Nationals also brought 16 10-and-under teams to town, with 12 headed to the final rounds starting Saturday.

Tracy’s entry in the 12-and-under tournament, the Tracy Titans, went 1-3 this week and was eliminated from the tournament after a 9-4 loss Friday morning to the Clovis Rockets. That followed an 11-1 loss Thursday to the Las Cruces Rebels of New Mexico, who were among the 16 teams still in the tournament’s losers bracket after the third round of bracket play.

The Titans also took a 10-1 loss Wednesday to Sunnyvale Wicked, but won their second game 6-5 against the Livermore Xtreme.

The 12-and-under tournament, the A level of ASA fastpitch, has at least four teams — The Next Level of Encinitas, California Thunder of Hacienda Heights, Minors Gold of Menefee, and Po’okela of Hawaii — who are still undefeated as of Saturday morning.

Three more teams — Sorcerer of Suisun, West Bay Nuggets of San Carlos and Mystic of San Diego — were also undefeated going into their Friday night games, but the outcomes of those games were not available as of press time.

In the 10-and-under division, the four teams in the championship bracket are the Elk Grove Thunder, California Desperados of San Clemente, Central California Dirt Dogs of Hanford and SoCal Aztecs of Long Beach. They play Saturday afternoon for a shot at Sunday’s 10 a.m. semifinal game and 2 p.m. championship.

Eight more teams, including All-American Sports Academy of Tracy, play in the losers bracket Saturday for a chance to move back into the title hunt. All-American is 2-2 so far, with an 11-6 win Wednesday over the San Jose Lady Sharks and a 9-0 loss to the Desperados in pool play. All-American won again Thursday, 13-0, over Mizuno All-American of Roseville, and lost 13-4 to Southern California Aztec on Friday.

Teams played their pool games and the first three rounds of bracket play at three venues: the Tracy Sports Complex, West High and Arnaiz Fields in Stockton. All the games Saturday and Sunday, except for one at Arnaiz Fields on Saturday morning, will be at the Tracy Sports Complex.

Games begin at 8 a.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday, and the championship games for both age groups will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday.