It was a wild and crazy week at the Triple Crown World Series for the Goleta Monarchs, an all-star softball team from the Goleta Valley Girls Softball Association.
The Monarchs pulled through with a tie for fifth place at the prestigious tournament in Reno that featured many of the top softball travel teams in the country.
The crazy week started with the team able to field only 11 players for the five-day tournament. Then the catcher had a foul ball strike her in the mouth, knocking out half of a front tooth. With no subs, she stayed in the game. In between games she got an emergency root canal and played the rest of the tournament. The head coach lost the only assistant coach who could make the trip when he was hospitalized with a kidney infection. A parent stepped in to help coach.
Despite all the craziness, the Monarchs won 7 of 10 games, including a pair of come-from-behind wins over the California Stompers (6-4) and San Diego Renegades (3-2). Against the Stompers, the Monarchs overcame a 4-2 deficit in the last inning by hitting four consecutive doubles to center field to win the game.
The other wins came over Central Cal Dirt Dogs (5-2), Washington State Flames (11-0), So Cal Bombers (6-0), Cal Valley Stompers (7-5 in the international tiebreaker in the 8th inning) and Cal Quakes (7-3). They lost to Salt Lake Pegasus (5-4), Nevada Stealth (5-4 in extra innings) and The Sorcerers (10-4), which had three players already committed to college programs.
Individual highlights include Claire Early collecting 11 hits for 11 runs and stealing four bases; Allison Borden, Allison Gasper and Sarah Baker batting over .400; catcher Morgan Jensen throwing out 57 percent of all runners attempting to steal base and picking off three baserunners; third baseman Savannah Tait recording three double plays; Emilia Kling laying down five sacrifice bunts, bunting for a base hit four times and stealing four bases; Julia Gregson and Jessica Yamasaki producing game-winning hits and Sierra Laughner hitting two triples and three doubles and playing solid second base and outfield.
The Allisons handled the pitching duties. Allison Speshyock went 4-2 on the mound and Allison Borden won three of four games.
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.