July 5, 2024
AURORA, Colo. – With unconventional talent dripping through his pitching staff, coach Joey Palmer can throw a few curveballs when deciding who heads to the circle.
His Hotshots National 09 team took center stage at the Aurora Sports Park on Thursday in the 14u Power Pool TV game and rang up an impressive 2-0 shutout versus Epic National-Smith as three quality arms – Annie Shelton, KK Patin and Morgan Maxwell – held the opposition to four hits and one walk to go with six strikeouts.
What made it interesting is the Palmer changed pitchers halfway through innings, and once in the middle of an at-bat, as he pushed all the buttons needed for Hotshots (Montgomery, TX) to seal the result.
"We are blessed to have three No. 1's on our staff, and I thought since they'd earned their way to this TC bracket championship, we wanted to give all three a chance to show what they have," Palmer said. "They did a great job. It was a little unorthodox to pull them when they were in control of the game, but we trusted them and the defense played great behind them."
Shelton struck out the last two batters in the second after Epic (Yukon, OK) got a runner to second base; Maxwell got a glove on a grounder in the sixth that led to a double play, and in the seventh with runners on first and second, she got a grounder to first base and one last strikeout to cap the night.
"With the team behind me, I was trying to be the better pitcher on every pitch," Maxwell said. "I have to stay calm in a close game, because if I'm not my pitches go everywhere. And when I'm batting, I like to stay calm and not try to do too much, just trust myself."
The game was scoreless into the bottom of the fourth inning – with one out, Maxwell singled and stole second base. With two outs, Kira Bailey guided a single to short centerfield, and Palmer sent Maxwell to home on a gamble that pressuring Epic's defense would pay off.
Indeed it did, as the throw home was offline. And that recipe worked again for a key insurance run in the sixth, after Skylar Knight reached base with one out on a hit-by-pitch. She went to steal third base, Epic's defense didn't rotate properly and left the base unoccupied, so when the throw rolled into left field, Knight scored.
"I just wanted to attack there because my team was counting on me in that moment," Bailey said about her RBI in the fourth. "That was the best approach. My pitchers did a great job, and so did the defense. They were dominating and I'm very proud of them."
"We work a lot on baserunning; it's part of our fabric and DNA as an organization," Palmer said. "We know our pitching and defense will be good enough. And hey, you're going to face good pitchers, and their's was throwing really good. We had to make runs happen, and we used our speed and executed the game plan. It was good to manufacture a couple runs and let the pitchers hold on."
Hotshots threatened to start the game with a big inning as three batters reached on walks. But Epic made a nice play to cut down a runner trying to score with one out, then got out of the inning with a groundout. Epic starting pitcher Tiffany Taylor closed with four strikeouts and threw all six innings.
