The South Central Storm 16u ended their solid run at the USSSA Southeast National Championships in Nashville, Tennessee coming away with 5th place out of 54 teams. The Storm completed pool play 3-0 earning the #1 seed in Pool D with an 11-2 win over the Illinois Lightning, 1-0 win over Central Ohio Pride and 5-0 win over the Louisville Sluggers.
After a first round bye, SC beat Windy City Gonzalez 5-4 followed by a win over the Delaware Magic to earn a trip to the top 8. They lost their first game 7-1 to the eventual runner up the New York Pride Blue Showcase dropping them to the loser’s bracket. There they picked up 2 more wins over the Midwest Marlins 6-1 and Illinois Dynasty 8-3 before losing to New York Pride Black 6-3 to finish 5th.
Maddy Francois of Centralia led the team in the circle going 5-1 allowing just 7 earned runs and picking up 46 strikeouts. Lauren Johnson of South Central went 2-1 on the week and hit .450.
Taylor Stone (Mulberry Grove) paced the Storm hitting .609 on the week followed by Ella Kreke (Dieterich) .571. Brittney Niemerg hit a 3-run homerun on Saturday in the win over the Marlins.
The SC Storm 07 finishes their summer season with a 27-9 record with a USSSA State championship to go along with their 5th place nationally.
