The Northern Virginia Shamrocks were lucky. The Pittsburgh Spirit was disheartened.

Up until the last half inning of their game Thursday at Potomack Lakes Sportsplex, neither 14-and-under team was hitting the ball particularly well. That changed, however, when the Shamrocks' Dorian Shaw stepped into the batters box in the bottom of the sixth inning.

With two outs and teammate Sam Inersoll standing on third after hitting a double off the centerfield wall, Shaw stroked a powerful grounder between the shortstop and third baseman, scoring the run and putting her team ahead, 1-0.

Shaw's wasn't the only big hit of the inning. Katie Nutiatis contributed a blast of her own when the bases were loaded. Nutiatis sent a towering fly ball over the right fielder's head that one-hopped the wall. Her shot cleared the bases and she walked into third with a stand-up triple. This was the last hit of the inning and it capped the scoring drive and a 4-0 win.

"When we get base runners, our team showed that we can score runs," said Shamrocks manager Paul Engman. "Dorian hit that ball too hard [for the third baseman] to handle. It all started with Sam hitting that ball to the fence. That's what we live by, the long ball."

During the course of the game, the Shamrocks pieced together some timely hits with a few walks to generate a couple scoring threats, but their aggressive baserunning was their Achilles heel. Trying to defy the odds in the third and sixth innings, Shamrocks assistant and third base coach Dennis McGaha sent two runners to their deaths - both were easily tagged out at the plate.

"We weren't hitting very decent, and when you have runners in scoring position like that, you have to take chances sometimes," McGaha said.

It didn't matter in the end, though. The Shamrocks improved to 5-0 in the tournament and are steadily proving why they are considered one of the favorites to vie for the championship crown.

"We played a good team today," Engman said. "They played us tough and their pitcher kept us from hitting the long ball, which we frequently do. Also, Britney Gardener really came through for us today. She pitched really well."