Get your flex on
The 14U Michigan Gold Rush is on quite a roll. They have won 16 in a row and their stellar defense has only given up 8 runs in those games. This past weekend the gold rush hammered the opposition in the Line Drive NSA tournament in Midland.
“Our defense has been awesome”, commented coach Lipovsky. “The girls are playing defense the way all coaches dream. Our pitching has been stellar, and when the other team does put the ball in play the girls on the infield and outfield just make play after play. My outfielders have been making diving catches and the infielders like Grace Staley, Kylie Keeley and Carley Starnes have been awesome. Our catchers, Lauren Mose and Kaylie Scott have been like block walls. They have all been just fantastic.”
This past weekend the gold rush started pool play with a 10-0 victory over the Pinconning Thunder. The four inning shutout was a combination effort from Allison Lipovsky and Jessica Cottrell. Carley Starnes led the offensive charge with three hits. Lipovsky added a two run homerun and Josie Hinkle added two singles.
In game two the opponent was Cardinal Fast Pitch. The gold rush wasted no time getting started as they jumped out to a 7-0 lead. From there they went on to hammer the girls from Davison 12-2. Lipovsky and Cottrell once again led the pitching brigade. Cottrell, Lipovsky and Starnes led the hitting attack with two each.
In game three, the girls beat up on the Moran Iron Works 7-0. The 13 hit attack was unique in that every gold rush player had one before it was done. Lipovsky pitched the complete five inning shutout.
Once bracket play started, the girls completely dominated the Capital City Krash 15-0 in three innings and then put the hammer down on the Grand Rapids Diamonds 9-2 in the quarter finals. The bats kept rolling, led by three hits from Lauren Mose and two from Grace Staley. Lipovsky completely gassed seven of the first nine hitters and was clocked at 64 mph mid way through the game.
In the semi finals the Gold Rush got the first half of the double headed dragon Line Drive Express Black. After setting the side down on strikeouts in the first, the bats erupted for three runs in the bottom of the first. A hit by Staley, a walk to Starnes, followed up by hits by Lipovsky, and Scott, gave them all the runs they would need. They added four more insurance runs in the fifth as they batted around with five hits, a walk and a few errors. With the excellent gold rush defense the LDE Black team only managed five base runners all game. Lipovsky was in complete control striking out 15 in the seven inning game.
In the finals the Gold Rush gals got to play the second head of the dragon – Line Drive Express Gold. The two teams knew each other well as it the fourth time in three weekends that the two teams had meet. In a tightly contested ball game, the Gold Rush manufactured the only runs of the game. In the third, Dayna Fennell led off with a single and Lauren Mose laid down a perfect bunt to put the first two runners on. Grace Staley sacrificed the runners over and that led to a deep ground ball by Starnes to score Fennell. A wild pitch with two outs brought in Mose and the Gold Rush had a two run lead. From there the defense held strong allowing only five more base runners for the 2-0 NSA tournament victory. The defense once again shined for the Gold Rush.
Fennell made a diving catch in center with two on and two outs in the third and Keeley made some great stops at second to help seal the deal. Through the seven game tournament, Lipovsky led the defensive charge with 64 strikeouts in 29 inning of work. Starnes led the hitting with 11 hits. The Gold Rush now sports a 35-5 record on the summer, three tournament titles, with a tournament in Shepherd at end of the month and ASA Nationals in Ohio the first part of August.
