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| SportsMonday, August 6, 2007 11:49 PM CDT |
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USA/ASA tourney: American Athletics rally to win title
NORMAL -- All weekend long, American Athletics’ coach Ed Naudin preached words like desire and determination to his team, making them believe magic was on their side. It certainly was. Trailing by a run, the A’s were down to their last hope as Katie Medina trudged to the batter’s box Sunday night. “I just got up there and was hoping for the best,” Medina said. “I was just trying to make contact and trying not to let my teammates down.” She didn’t waste any time. Medina launched the first pitch she saw into the right-center field gap, sending the bench and crowd into pandemonium. Her hit drove in two runs and gave the A’s a 5-4 win over the Corona Angels in the USA/ASA Girls’ 14-Under Class A Fastpitch Championship game at Champion Fields. “There are really no words to describe (the moment),” Medina said. “… This is the best thing that ever happened (to me) so far.” Medina’s heroics kept the belief that anything’s possible. “We labeled this weekend about playing with desire and determination and we also talked about being magical,” said Naudin, whose team had no players older than 13. “Everyday we were magical.” The Angels entered the seventh inning with a one-run lead and their best hurler, Jessica Hall, on the mound to finish what would have been an improbable comeback. Earlier in the day, Hall shut-out the A’s 3-0 to force a second game to determine the champion. After surrendering a leadoff infield single, Hall retired the next two batters in order to keep the pressure on the A’s. Behind 1-0 to Alicia Walker, Hall induced a groundball to the shortstop, who was unable to field it cleanly with a runner closing in on second. “There were a lot of things we could’ve done,” Corona coach Marty Tyson said. “Like I told our kids, I don’t want that one play to dictate why we failed.” The error allowed Medina to become a hero. “When I saw my pitch, I just swung,” Medina said. After the swing, Medina was hoping the ball would find a hole. “All I was thinking was, ‘Please get down,’” she said. “When I saw that it actually touched the (ground), I was really overwhelmed.” The game-winning double put a storybook ending on an unforgettable season. “It’s a fitting conclusion and we always felt that we belonged here,” said Naudin, who coach his last game for the A’s as he will be moving to the Dallas area later this month. “I always told this team, ‘You belong in this tournament. You deserve to be here.’ And I think they’ve shown that every time we played.” Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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...... wrote on Aug 30, 2007 10:24 AM:
Tim Edward wrote on Aug 7, 2007 12:38 AM:
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