In 2018, with only two returning players for the 10U Sparks Team, they did the nearly impossible, or at least, the unthinkable. They took 2nd place in the NorCal Championships and punched a ticket to San Diego.
It was a surprising and dramatic run, winning a few games by a single run in the last inning. It was the stuff Disney makes movies out of.
So surely it could never happen again, right.
Well, in 2019, with only two returning 12U players (Liv and Maryam), a group of young girls just moving up from 10s, and three girls (Sophia, Lily and Itzel) who were still 10U eligible the Sparks made another incredible run.
And this run started in the toughest way possible. We started with the first game of the tournament on Friday, against a tough Belmont Team. And although we led for much of the game, we lost, dropping us to the losers bracket.
From then on it was win or go home. And going home wasn't an option for this team. They turned around and beat Almaden later on Friday and the good feelings began to build. Saturday saw the Sparks beat Alameda and Milbrae setting up a return match with Belmont. This time, winner goes to San Diego.
The game was late on Friday, under the lights, and it was a battle, until we broke it open, going up by 5, 11-6 going into the last inning. We just needed three outs to punch our return ticket to San Diego. Everyone was feeling ready to celebrate.
Then, a hit. An error. A stolen base. A bloop hit. Before we knew it the game was tied. Heads were down coming off the field, we had the bottom of the last inning to put something together. No one was feeling worse then Itzel who struggled in the field in the top of the inning with a couple errors that helped them tie the game, and as the softball gods would have it, she was leading off our part of the inning.
She was in the on deck circle, and as I went up to her to give her some last minute words of encouragement she was in tears. For a moment I wondered if I could even send her up to the plate. The Belmont pitcher was throwing hard and how could I ask this 10 year old to go up when she was feeling so down. We had a quick chat, and she pulled herself together. And if you didn't believe in Sparks Magic before, you did soon enough. Itzel got down 0-2 quickly, and looked over matched, and then, the girl with the perfect fundamentals connected on a ball down the right field line. She would have ended the game with a homerun had the ball not gone past the line. She ended up with a ground rule double.
MJ batting 8th, came up and put the ball in play to 3rd base. Itzel waited for the throw to be made, them advance to 3rd.
Winning run, San Diego run, on 3rd base and another 10 year old coming up. Lily Lundel. Lily battled, and worked a walk.
Two runners on, but only one mattered, Itzel at 3rd base. And here comes the top of the lineup, Liv.
I need to pause here to take you back a few weeks to our very first tournament of the summer. We were playing the San Mateo Slammers in the Championship game of the Tony Sanchez Tournament. It was nearly an identical situation, only this time we had the tying run on 3rd and the winning run on 2nd. Once again Liv was up. She took strike one, then took strike two. Even then my confidence was sky high that she was gonna put the ball in play and we were gonna tie the game if not win it right there. She took a mighty swing on the next pitch and missed. It was one of only 3 strikeouts she had all summer. After the game, with tears in many of their eyes I told them I'd take my chances every day of the week with Liv up to bat and a chance to win the game.
Back to the NorCal game.
Liv took strike one, could this really be de ja vue all over again? Three pitches later, with a 2-1 count, Liv smashes it to the right side. The first baseman leans to her right and makes the scoop on a short hop. I yelled "GO!" to Itzel, but I was already late. She had taken off as soon as the ball cracked the bat. At this moment you could have played theme from Chariots of Fire because everything seemed to go in slow motion. Itzel, who minutes ago was in tears thinking she let her team down, was speeding down the third base line. The first baseman fielding it cleanly, setting herself and throwing home. The catcher steps forward to block the plate. The ball arrives. Itzel slides. The tag is made. The crowd goes silent.
"SAFE" yells the umpire, and our dugout explodes. We won. We avenged our loss against Belmont, we punched our ticket to San Diego. And more then that, we weren't done.
We returned to Twin Creeks the next day to play our arch rival, Campbell Crush. Sofia, who had come from Campbell and been an incredible pitcher for us, got the start, and did what she did all summer. Pounded the strike zone and won us the game.
We moved on to play Burlingame Flames and then Mt. Dream and won them both. We ended the tournament on a 7 game winning streak and ended 7-1, 3rd place in NorCal.
An unbelievable run!
It was a surprising and dramatic run, winning a few games by a single run in the last inning. It was the stuff Disney makes movies out of.
So surely it could never happen again, right.
Well, in 2019, with only two returning 12U players (Liv and Maryam), a group of young girls just moving up from 10s, and three girls (Sophia, Lily and Itzel) who were still 10U eligible the Sparks made another incredible run.
And this run started in the toughest way possible. We started with the first game of the tournament on Friday, against a tough Belmont Team. And although we led for much of the game, we lost, dropping us to the losers bracket.
From then on it was win or go home. And going home wasn't an option for this team. They turned around and beat Almaden later on Friday and the good feelings began to build. Saturday saw the Sparks beat Alameda and Milbrae setting up a return match with Belmont. This time, winner goes to San Diego.
The game was late on Friday, under the lights, and it was a battle, until we broke it open, going up by 5, 11-6 going into the last inning. We just needed three outs to punch our return ticket to San Diego. Everyone was feeling ready to celebrate.
Then, a hit. An error. A stolen base. A bloop hit. Before we knew it the game was tied. Heads were down coming off the field, we had the bottom of the last inning to put something together. No one was feeling worse then Itzel who struggled in the field in the top of the inning with a couple errors that helped them tie the game, and as the softball gods would have it, she was leading off our part of the inning.
She was in the on deck circle, and as I went up to her to give her some last minute words of encouragement she was in tears. For a moment I wondered if I could even send her up to the plate. The Belmont pitcher was throwing hard and how could I ask this 10 year old to go up when she was feeling so down. We had a quick chat, and she pulled herself together. And if you didn't believe in Sparks Magic before, you did soon enough. Itzel got down 0-2 quickly, and looked over matched, and then, the girl with the perfect fundamentals connected on a ball down the right field line. She would have ended the game with a homerun had the ball not gone past the line. She ended up with a ground rule double.
MJ batting 8th, came up and put the ball in play to 3rd base. Itzel waited for the throw to be made, them advance to 3rd.
Winning run, San Diego run, on 3rd base and another 10 year old coming up. Lily Lundel. Lily battled, and worked a walk.
Two runners on, but only one mattered, Itzel at 3rd base. And here comes the top of the lineup, Liv.
I need to pause here to take you back a few weeks to our very first tournament of the summer. We were playing the San Mateo Slammers in the Championship game of the Tony Sanchez Tournament. It was nearly an identical situation, only this time we had the tying run on 3rd and the winning run on 2nd. Once again Liv was up. She took strike one, then took strike two. Even then my confidence was sky high that she was gonna put the ball in play and we were gonna tie the game if not win it right there. She took a mighty swing on the next pitch and missed. It was one of only 3 strikeouts she had all summer. After the game, with tears in many of their eyes I told them I'd take my chances every day of the week with Liv up to bat and a chance to win the game.
Back to the NorCal game.
Liv took strike one, could this really be de ja vue all over again? Three pitches later, with a 2-1 count, Liv smashes it to the right side. The first baseman leans to her right and makes the scoop on a short hop. I yelled "GO!" to Itzel, but I was already late. She had taken off as soon as the ball cracked the bat. At this moment you could have played theme from Chariots of Fire because everything seemed to go in slow motion. Itzel, who minutes ago was in tears thinking she let her team down, was speeding down the third base line. The first baseman fielding it cleanly, setting herself and throwing home. The catcher steps forward to block the plate. The ball arrives. Itzel slides. The tag is made. The crowd goes silent.
"SAFE" yells the umpire, and our dugout explodes. We won. We avenged our loss against Belmont, we punched our ticket to San Diego. And more then that, we weren't done.
We returned to Twin Creeks the next day to play our arch rival, Campbell Crush. Sofia, who had come from Campbell and been an incredible pitcher for us, got the start, and did what she did all summer. Pounded the strike zone and won us the game.
We moved on to play Burlingame Flames and then Mt. Dream and won them both. We ended the tournament on a 7 game winning streak and ended 7-1, 3rd place in NorCal.
An unbelievable run!
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