St. Michael-Albertville's Girls of Summer Off and Running

STMA Girls Fastpitch hosted the 3rd Annual Annette Leuer Memorial Tournament over the weekend with games at the High School and Middle School West. 40 teams competed across three age levels (10U, 12U, 14U) with teams traveling from Brainerd, St. Cloud, Inver Grove Heights, Champlin Park, Hopkins along with local teams from Rockford, Buffalo, Elk River, Monticello, and Becker. 
 
The nine STMA teams (three at each age level) performed very well in front of the hometown fans. 
 
At 10U, the STMA Heat earned the top seed by going 4-0 in pool play on Saturday. The second team, led by coach Mike Casey, also had an excellent day to earn the third seed, with team Gondreau earning the seventh seed. 
Sunday, all 12 teams battled it out in the single elimination bracket. Heat pitcher Abby Erickson shut out 9th seeded Cambridge in the quarterfinals before turning the ball over to Brooke Burditt for the final two games. Burditt dominated Inver Grove Heights 7-1 in the semifinals and downed the Casey team in the finals 4-1 behind the hitting and throwing of catcher Molly Wilde. Wilde hit a towering blast to left and threw out multiple would-be base stealers at second. 
The Casey team rolled past undefeated #2 seed NW Diamonds (Elk River) before falling in the championship game. The Knights were led by super pitcher Alexis Silvernale, who pitched well against in the Heat in the loss. 
 
At 12U, the STMA Heat earned the 8th seed after battling to a 1-2-1 record in pool play. The squared off against fellow STMA team - Kotchen (#9 seed) in the first round. Gaining momentum from that win, they knocked out tourney top seed Becker 3-0 behind a gem thrown by pitcher Peyton Kessler. They kept the momentum going in the semifinals by beating #4 seed Rockford 7-2. In front of a fired up home crowd, they battled and ulitmately fell to Hopkins 4-3 in the championship game to cap off a brilliant Sunday team effort. The third STMA team - Boyd, was seeded 12th and played a great ballgame before losing to #5 seed Brainerd. 
 
At 14U, the STMA Heat rallied from a pool play loss to Becker (dropping them to the 5th seed) to roll through the bracket and claim the title over Maple Lake. 
Second team STMA Fox (seeded 6th) knocked out #11 seed St. Cloud before falling to #3 seed Becker. #10 seed Chatterton / Steinbach had a great weekend before succumbing to #7 seed Buffalo. 
 
The 10U Heat and 14U Heat team both qualified for the National tournament to be held in late July in Bloomington, MN. 

In other action this season:

After battling through gusty winds to split at Maple Grove and stormy skies for a second split at home with Northwest Diamonds (Elk River), the Heat traveled to Centennial High School for a weekend tourney June 4 and 5. On Saturday, the team went 2-1 in pool play with big wins over Blaine and St. Francis after an opening loss to Champlin Park. The team's finish qualified them for the semifinals of the higher-seed bracket on Sunday. 
 
Sunday, the Heat fell 2-1 after an intense battle with Soderville. Brooke Burditt pitched an outstanding ballgame for the Heat, with 12 strikeouts over 5 innings. The Heat were also led by shortstop Annalise Davis, who singled, scored the only run, and teamed with catcher Molly Wilde to put out two stealing runners at second. 
 
In the third place game, the Heat grinded out a 7-6 win over Spring Lake Park. The team jumped out to a 7-2 lead behind the strong pitching of Alexis Silvernale and a two-run home run by first baseman Megan Baldwin. Paige Bredesen came on in relief to finish the game which ended on a throw from catcher Jadyn Hanson to Baldwin on a passed-ball third strike. 
 

Meanwhile, the St Michael U8 Ostrowski team came home from the Dirt Devil Softball Classic with first place in the Silver division. The girls’ game improved immensely in just five games over the weekend. Some great pitching, and even a couple of double plays! It greatly increased their confidence for their game of softball, but above all had a really fun time, coaches reported. 
 
STMA fans enjoyed the warm temperatures, the T-shirt vendors,  a demonstration from the Wright County K9 unit, and chilled Maui Wowees between maintaining fields and staffing the concession stands. The STMA Girls Fastpitch Association would like to thank all the volunteers and helpers for a great weekend.