O.C. Batbusters’ run falls just short in 18U Premier title game

Reporting from Irvine —  Mike Stith certainly can be critical at times, but he had nothing but positive things to say after his O.C. Batbusters saw their magical run come up just short of a national title.

The Batbusters won 10 straight elimination games over the course of Wednesday and Thursday to reach the final of the 18U Premier bracket in the PGF Nationals.

An improbable run ended with tears, as an emotionally-spent Batbusters team lost 6-4 to the Georgia Impact Lewis in the championship game on Friday night at Deanna Manning Stadium.

“When you do this long enough, you experience everything,” Stith said. “What has happened over the last 72 hours with these guys has been amazing.”

Huntington Beach High rising senior Jadelyn Allchin had a bases-loaded single in the top of the first to spot her team a 2-0 lead.

The Impact tied it on a two-run double by Jordan Fabian in the bottom half of the inning.

Batbusters catcher Terra McGowan punched a single inside the third-base bag to make it 4-2 in the top of the sixth, but the Impact had the response again.

Olivia Rains started the bottom of the sixth, but she was pulled after walking the first two batters she faced. Vanessa Foreman, who shut down the Corona Angels Tyson over the final eight innings of an international tiebreaker win in the semifinals, re-entered the game.

An error allowed one run to score, and the bases were loaded when Skylar Wallace ran out a bunt single.

Charla Echols, the third baseman of the Impact, was the next batter. She lined a bases-clearing double to left-center, just out of the reach of a diving Allchin.

“It’s definitely something I’m never going to forget,” the Michigan State-committed Echols said. “I was happy that I was able to come through for the team. We were one hit away the whole game, I felt like. I was just happy that I could get it done for us.”

Asked if she thought the ball was going to drop in off the bat, Echols added, “I knew I hit it well, but I didn’t realize how close she was to catching it.”

Friday night’s win marked the first 18U Premier national championship for the Georgia Impact.

Allchin, a Washington commit, narrowly missed a double with runners on before grounding out to short to end the sixth.

While the time-honored cliché of “it’s a game of inches” certainly applies, Stith knew it worked both ways. In the fifth inning with the score tied at 2-2, the Batbusters escaped a bases-loaded jam when second baseman Maya Brady went vertical to catch a line drive off the bat of Ali Newland.

As the tournament got underway, the Batbusters found themselves in the loser’s bracket after a 4-3 loss to the defending champion Beverly Bandits Conroy (Chicago) in the opening round.

From there, the Batbusters had to win four games on Wednesday and six on Thursday to reach the championship game. Stith’s teams have experienced success that has seen them appear in four of the last six 18U Premier finals, but none of his teams had ever battled back from a loss in the first game.

“In 2013, we lost about our fourth game and had to win five to get here,” Stith said. “Ten in a couple of days is unique. It says that they have a lot of character and a lot of fight.”

The Batbusters rallied against UCLA-bound Corona Angels pitcher Megan Faraimo in the semifinals on Thursday night at Huntington Beach Sports Complex, finishing off a marathon day with a 4-3 win in nine innings (ITB).

McGowan and Tiare Jennings had solo home runs in the seventh inning to erase a 3-1 deficit.

“I trust Coach Mike, and I’ve been hitting with him all year,” McGowan said at the end of action on Thursday. “It comes to a point, we have no nerves, and you just see the ball. I trust in my team, and I trust in myself.”

Allchin drove in the game-winning run in the semifinals with a sacrifice-fly in the ninth.

“Stepping into the box, I was like, ‘Okay, well [Faraimo’s] not going to throw me anything I haven’t already swung at, and I haven’t missed,’” Allchin recalled of the at-bat. “I was getting ready for an outside pitch. That’s what she threw me, and that’s what happened.”

Asked to describe the battle through the loser’s bracket in one word, Allchin replied, “Unbelievable.”

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Twitter: @ProfessorTurner