Sorcerer Gold (Phil) wins 18-Under GOLD with Ricketts leading the way

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. -- Behind the pitching and batting of left-hander Keilani Ricketts (San Jose, Calif.), Sorcerer Gold-Phil of Vallejo, Calif. completed an unbeaten sweep through the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) 18-under Girls’ GOLD National Championship Sunday afternoon at the ASA Hall of Fame Complex in Oklahoma City, Okla. 

To go 7-0 for their first ASA GOLD national title, Sorcerer Gold defeated the defending 2008 GOLD National Champions, the Gold Coast Hurricanes (Plantation, Fla.) 3-1, in the championship game. 

One reason Sorcerers won was because of the outstanding play of Ricketts (San Jose, Calif.), who will attend the University of Oklahoma this fall. Ricketts limited the Hurricanes to only three hits and one run while striking out eight in going the distance in a 97-pitch performance. She issued only one walk. 

Her performance was impressive throughout the tournament. She won all of her team’s seven games and fanned 58 batters in 47 innings, allowing 15 hits while only walking eight batters. And she also drove in six runs while batting .444 (8-for-18). 

Ricketts also had three of her team’s nine hits—which came off four Gold Coast pitchers—in the championship game with a single in the second and a double to left center leading off the top of the fourth. Ricketts eventually scored on a bloop single by Shenise Cox, making the Sorcerer lead 2-0. 

Then the Hurricanes fought back and scored their lone run in the bottom of the fifth to cut the deficit to 2-1 on Michelle Moultrie’s (Plantation, Fla.) RBI single. 

The Sorcerers added an insurance run in the top of the seventh on a Tylyn Wells’ (Concord, Calif.) single scoring Jessica Vest (Hollister, Calif.), who had singled to open the inning and was sacrificed to second. Wells also brought home the first Sorcerer run in the third inning with a double inside the right field foul line. 

In the bottom of the seventh, the Hurricanes went down in order, which ended the game and their magnificent run through the tourney as they finished with a 10-2 record, winning nine consecutive games in the losers bracket before losing in the championship game. 

The Hurricanes again used their quartet of pitchers with loser and starter Hannah Rogers, (Lake Wales, Fla.), who went three innings, allowed four hits and two runs, Kylie Vry (Des Moines, Iowa), Leslie Jury ( (Anderson, Fla.) and Rachele Fico ( Oxford, Fla. ) who allowed three hits and one run in two innings. Jury and Fry each pitched an inning. 

Gold Coast had advanced to the championship game by eliminating the Worth Firecrackers, 3-1, in the third place game earlier Sunday. 

Gold Coast jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and held on as the Firecrackers, who time and time again battled back to win games by one-run margins, couldn’t do it one more time and lost 3-1. Their only run came in the second inning. 

Fico went the distance for the Hurricanes against the Firecrackers, striking our five and walking one. The Firecrackers started Rebecca Patton, who allowed two hits and two runs before Ensley Gammel came on to finish the game, allowing four hits and one run. 

Moultrie had three of the Hurricanes’ six hits while Hallie Wilson (Tustin, Calif.) and Kylee Lahners (Laguna Hills, Calif.) had two hits apiece for the Firecrackers. 

In the winners bracket final on Sunday morning, the Sorcerers blanked the Worth Hurricanes, 2-0, who had won its last four games by one-run margins. The Sorcerers scored single runs in the third and sixth inning to advance to the championship round and remain as the tourney’s lone undefeated team (6-0). 

Emily Allard’s (Antioch, Calif.) two-out single brought across the first run in the third inning. The Sorcerers added another run in the top of the seventh on a double by Cox. 

The Firecrackers, who dropped into the losers bracket with the loss, could only manage three hits against winning pitcher Ricketts who fanned six and walked one in the complete game. 

Taking the loss for the Firecrackers was starter Rebecca Patton (Northridge, Calif.), who gave up three hits and one run in three innings, Ensley Gammel (Bakersfield, Calif.) relieved her and finished the game, allowing two hits and the second run. 

While the Sorcerers were blanking the Firecrackers, the defending champion Gold Coast Hurricanes eliminated the So Cal Athletics, 4-2, in the losers bracket with a quartet of pitchers. Leslie Jury (Anderson, Fla.) started, followed by Hannah Rogers, (Lake Wales, Fla.) Kylie Vry (Des Moines, Iowa) and Rachele Fico (Oxford, Fla.) Rogers got the win and hurled four 2/3 innings, allowing three hits and two runs. 

The Athletics (Upland, Calif.) were eliminated from the tourney with the loss and finished in fourth place in a field of 64 with a 6-2 record. Kayla Massey (Foothill Ranch, Calif.) was the starter and losing pitcher for the Athletics. Mandle Sugita (Rossmore, Calif.) hurled the last one and 2/3 innings. 

Center fielder Michelle Moultrie (Plantation, Fla.) led the Hurricanes, winners of eight games in a row in the losers bracket, with a pair of hits including an RBI double in the fourth. She also scored the first Hurricane run on an error. The Hurricanes also scored their second run on an error.