July 8, 2024
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Like they say in the investment business, past results are no guarantee of future success.
But in athletic competition, it often helps to know you’ve come through a stress-packed moment or two when the next one pops up.
For the 12u Athletics Mercado-Romero squad, there was no shortage of tension about halfway through Saturday’s Gold Division championship game in the 2024 Sparkler Juniors event. Trailing the Georgia Impact Premier through four innings by one run certainly didn’t create much comfort in the dugout.
The Athletics (Santa Ana, CA) channeled the good memories of a comeback win in the semifinals earlier in the day, made the most of some miscues by the Impact, and wound up scoring five runs in the fifth to carve out a 7-4 victory. Danica Buchanan pitched four innings of stellar relief, and huge extra-base hits from Makay Ingram and Mia Zuniga were tipping points for the Athletics, who earned a spot in the final with a 10-7 extra-inning grinder against the Alabama Sparks Elite in the semis.
“It took a lot of energy to come back, and it took all the players to fight through it,” said Athletics head coach Isaiah Romero. “We made that late run, got it to the tiebreaker. When we play games like this and teams like this (for the championship), it’s usually about who makes the first mistake. We had to make sure to take advantage – we took care of it that inning.”
Both teams were a little shaky at the start of the title game. A couple defensive lapses in the outfield saw the Athletics score twice in the top of the first; the Impact (Loganville, GA) countered with four straight singles and ended up with a 3-2 lead after the frame.
In the fifth, a force play at second changed it all when the umpire ruled the Impact fielder came off the bag too soon. With runners at first and second, a bunt was then misplayed, loading the bases. A fielder’s choice wiped out a baserunner at home plate, but then Zuniga and Ingram hit back-to-back doubles to make it 6-3.
Buchanan added an RBI single for the seventh run.
“I had a lot of confidence, and in my previous at-bats I was making good contact,” Zuniga said. “So I knew I was on it. We’re a great team, and coming in we thought we should make it to the championship. We had to play hard to win, and we did.”
“I was a little nervous and didn’t want to pop up or do something stupid,” Ingram said. “I believed in myself, used my technique and hit it. (In the semifinal) it was not scary, but nerve-wracking, where you know one mistake would cost the entire game. You had to play good.”
The Impact tallied a run in the bottom of the fifth on a single, but Buchanan was an unsolvable riddle the rest of the way with her changeup working and solid fastball all doing damage. In fact, she struck out the side to wrap up the game in the seventh.
“It was exciting to see, our whole team was up and cheering for each other,” Buchanan said. “It was cool to see them pull it off. My pitching coach taught me that when I was really young, so I’ve always had a changeup. I was feeling pretty confident about it.”
“They (Ingram and Zuniga) are huge, key players and they have a big-bat mentality,” Romero added. “Earlier today, they were on, and they turned it on again in the championship game. And Danica, she’s remarkable. She was able to close it out.”
