The 18U Shamrocks continued their winning ways over the past 10 days in Raleigh, NC. Heading down for the PONY National Tournament, the Shamrocks arrived 3 days early to play in the Carolina Cardinals Invitational – a pool play only tournament in which teams are placed according to their respective levels of competition. Playing in the most competitive pool, the Rocks defeated the Georgia Elite 2-1, the Tampa Mustangs 9-1, the Richmond Diamonds 2-0 and the South Carolina Bandits 5-0. Their only setback was an eight inning 1-0 loss to the host Carolina Cardinals with the winning run scoring on a wild pitch.

      With a very good tune up behind them, the Shamrocks remained in town and captured the 94-team 18U Pony National Championship. The team had a perfect 10-0 record for the tournament as they went 3-0 in pool play and 3-0 in bracket play to advance to the single elimination field of 16 remaining teams. In the first round of single elimination play the Shamrocks defeated a stubborn Fire-N-Ice (New York) team by a score of 2-1. Christy Anch tossed a 2-hitter with 14 strikeouts and first baseman Dani Woods hit a towering solo home run in the bottom of the 6th inning to win it for the Rocks. The final 8 advanced to Saturday and the Shamrocks opened with a 14-4 thrashing of the Richmond Storm. The team pounded out 21 hits led again by 2 home runs from Dani Woods and a 2-hitter with 8 strikeouts from pitcher Brittany Detwiler. In the semi-final game Caitlin Murphy went 2 for 2 with 2 rbi’s and Annie Dell’Aria homered as Christy Anch blanked Quick Silver, Florida by a score of 6-0. The Championship game featured 2 Virginia teams as the Shamrocks faced the Fairfax Firebirds. The Shamrocks bats remained hot as they pounded out 7 runs on 13 hits led by Courtney Bures (4 for 4) and 2 hits apiece from Kelly Brown, Christy Anch and Annie Dell’Aria. Anch was the winning pitcher as she tossed a 3-hit complete game shutout with 9 K’s. During the tournament, the Shamrocks batted .362 as a team and outscored their opponents by a combined score of 62-8. Dani Woods led the attack with a .561 batting average including 3 doubles, 6 home runs and 15 rbi’s. Kelly Brown and Erin Puente each batted .500 while Courtney Bures and Annie Dell’Aria finished at .455 and .414 respectively. Christy Anch (32-0) and Brittany Detwiler (25-3) each went 5-0 allowing only 1 earned run apiece while combining for 85 strikeouts in 64 innings of work.

      The Shamrocks, now 59-3-2 on the season have won 7 of 8 elimination tournaments this summer with their only non-championship being a 3rd place finish in the Independence Day Tournament in Boulder, Colorado where they finished 3rd with a 12-1-1 record versus the top competition in the country. The team heads out to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma August 5 through August 11 for the granddaddy of them all – the ASA (Amateur Softball Association) 18U Gold National Championship Tournament. Playing well and packing a load of confidence, the 2002 Pony National Champions have their sights set on a Top 10 finish against the best of the best while fully realizing one more championship is certainly not out of the question.