South Tampa Girls Come One Game Short of World Title

The girls have “unfinished business” after coming home one run short of a national title last year. Three girls from that national finalist team are on this year’s team. This year’s team has not lost a game and has scarcely given up a run. They blasted their way through southeast regionals, against other state champions and did not surrender a run until the final against Georgia. They outscored opponents 34-2 at regionals and have to be favorites to at least return to finals at this year’s nationals.

Nationals is set up much the same as the other tournaments: two pools of five play four games against each other and the top two advance, seeded, into the semifinals.

Palma Ceia/West Tampa are the Southeast Regional team. In their pool will be Midwestern Regional, Washington, Asia Pacific and Canada.

They play Midwest on Monday, Washington on Tuesday, Asia Pacific on Wednesday, and Canada on Thursday.

“It’s been phenomenal, the hard work these girls have put in to get to this point,” said league president Mark Sakalosky.

You can get live updates from each of the games right here at South Tampa Patch.

If the girls make it out of pool play, the semifinals are Friday, August 19 and finals are the following Saturday. That game will be televised on ESPN.

***UPDATE***

Girls drop their first pool game at nationals to Midwest regional champs 9-3. They made 10 errors which is a phenomena that will not likely re-occur. 

Next up is host Washington tonight.

***UPDATE***

The girls bounced back strong from their opening loss.

They beat host Washington representing the Northeast 4-1 in their second pool game. Nikki Lopez and Kasey Wishart combined their pitching efforts and only gave up one run. Victoria Valdes went 2 for 3 at the plate.

The girls took out the Asia Pacific team 2-0 in their third pool game on the back of Nikki Lopez's complete game shutout with 11 strikeouts.

The girls took batting practice on team Canada 12-2; the highlight being a three-run homer by Sydney Coleman.

They take on the team representing the Southwest tomorrow in the semifinals at 4:45pm Pacific time. The Central region and East will play later that night.

***UPDATE***

The girls beat the Southwest champion, 5-2, Friday night. In the other semi-final game, the Central region champion beat the East championship team, 3-2. Today's 5 p.m. matchup pits the Palm Ceia/West Tampa girls against the Central regional champion. The winner is the 2011 Junior League Softball World Champion.