July 8, 2024
WESTMINSTER, Colo. — After a week of intense, high-skill softball play, only two teams remained standing from a field of 138 during the Triple Crown 18U Sparkler. One came from the next state over, while the other made the trek from the other side of the world.
The Utah Freakz, having faced a seemingly insurmountable deficit early on at Christopher Fields on Saturday, needed a late rally and eight innings to take down Team Chinese Taipei in a 12-11 thriller. Brooklyn Ricci emphatically stomped on the plate to end the game, after a line drive from Hannah Brockman down the gap between first and second sent her home from third.
The rest of the team, naturally, rushed out of the dugout in celebration.
“I was so excited. It was a surreal moment.,” Brockman said. “It’s definitely our mental toughness. We come down from a deficit and we find our way. We fight back no matter what.”
Up to that point, neither squad seemed to care much for small ball.
Brielle Sandoval needed just one swing of the bat to lead her team at the plate, knocking in four runs with a grand slam in the bottom of the sixth inning. Her four RBI during that frame helped the Freakz nearly erase a late, seven-run deficit and pull her team out of the pit that Chinese Taipei had shoved them into.
Her home run was one of eight hit during the game, two of which belonged to Chinese Taipei’s Jin-Ling Juang. Ella Miller, Eliza Johnson and Tatum Hall contributed the other bombs for the Utah team.
Sandoval said that game-altering hit provided the Freakz with the zap of energy they had lacked before.
“Honestly, I just felt like it was a dream. It was awesome. I was so excited and it really drove the team to be more excited and want to be in the game more,” Sandoval said. “(Chinese Taipei) was really good. We haven't seen people like that in a long time and it was awesome to play people like that.”
Chinese Taipei came out of the gate swinging for the fences. Back-to-back moonshots in the second inning got the ball rolling for them after an earlier error allowed a run to come home. The Freakz responded in the bottom of that same frame with a two-run homer from Miller to make it 4-2, but Chinese Taipei’s elite defense strangled Utah through the next three innings.
During that time, they built up an 11-4 advantage as they edged closer and closer to the tournament crown. They were the first team from China/Taiwan to make the trip to Colorado for the Sparkler competition.
Utah, with its back against the wall, put down five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, then tied the contest up at 11 with — what else? — a two-run bomb from Hall in the bottom of the seventh.
The Freakz relied on strong leadership in the circle from Avery Thorkelson in the top of the eighth to keep the second-base courtesy runner away from home plate. Chinese-Taipei couldn’t afford Utah or Ricci the same courtesy.
Head coach Anthony Ricci said he would have to reach into his wallet to reward his Freakz after such a hard-fought victory.
“There's no ending in this team,” he said. “We've done Slurpee rallies in multiple games, where we're going through our lineup. It's just a game of averages, and it was our turn to do it. I think they just stayed disciplined at the plate, looked for their good pitches, and they never hung their heads.
“Slurpee rallies is when we go from the leadoff hitter, go through that lineup, and we complete that lineup. Then they always make me pay for a Slurpee.”
