Colorado Sparkler tournament is now history. Batbusters played 11 games. They won 11 games. No loser's bracket for them. Beat Corona Angels-Tyson (Aubree Munro's old team...for the third time this year) 13-0 in the championship game. I consider this the best and toughest tournament in the country. Tougher than the PGF and Alliance National Championships because some of the best play PGF and some Alliance. This is the toughest tournament where everyone is there regardless of PGF or Alliance. Batbusters beat Illinois Chill 7-4 in the semifinal. Why is that interesting? Because they beat Lisabella Dimitrijeuvic in the circle. She gave up 8 hits and 7 runs, 4 earned. Taylor went 1-3 with a rbi and a walk against her. So, why am I pointing this out? Lisabella is a 2025 kid we wanted but has committed to FSU. Suck it, FSU! I'll have some more Taylor bombs once I make some clips but in the meantime, in this difficult tournament with elite pitching, Taylor went 18-32 (.563) with 16 runs scored, 15 big rbis from leadoff, 5 doubles, 4 home runs and 5 walks. Which, of course, dropped her average by 50 points. I don't know if they will play another tournament before the Alliance Championships later this month but with that, Taylor will be done with travel and going home to pack for her cross-country trip to Gainesville. For the season in 34 games she is now 54-82 (.659) with 50 runs, 30 rbis, 17 doubles, 2 triples, 9 home runs and 15 walks. So, more than half of her hits are for extra bases. More to come once I pick out some video clips to make when I can get to it.
Well, I guess I was wrong to some extent. This tournament has over 500 teams in the various ages (and over 500 registered college coaches attending) and it is almost impossible to figure out. As an aside, the people that run this must be mathematical geniuses to keep all of this straight year-after-year. Anyway, Batbusters played another game today beating Georgia Impact Camoyl 6-1. It is almost impossible to keep track. Very easy to keep track of the pool/bracket of the Batbusters who I am positive play in the elite 18U division with the best in the country and I thought that was the end of it. There is at least a lesser 18U division for teams that don't want to enter the elite pool. It is impossible to follow the bracket diagrams for what might be next as they are massively confusing and end up running off the screen anyway. So, I think, but not positive, this game against Georgia Impact Camoyl (which is not the best Impact team) matched the two 18U divisions for the overall championship. I'm waiting to see if the Batbusters play again which will blow that scenario sky high. Anyway, Taylor went 2-2 with a run, a rbi and a walk so both her tournament numbers and her season numbers will need to be revised upwards. I'll do so after I'm sure this is finally the end. I place no bets. Edit: I'm not positive any of that is correct. Georgia Impact organization used to be the premier SE organization, or at least close with EC Bullets,Tampa Mustangs-TJ and Birmingham Thunderbolts. But, something happened a year ago with Impact. The premier 18U team was always Impact-Lewis but Lewis split in something that seemed acrimonious and went with the Texas Bombers organization. So, Impact-Camoyl might be their best team but not clear to me if on the level of the Bolts and the Bullets. Meanwhile TJ Goeltz quit both the Mustangs and Lakewood Ranch so I think now that Mustangs-Rene is their premier 18U team but, as with the Impact, I'm not sure they are attracting the overall talent that Lewis and Goeltz did. Whatever, I pay more attention to this than a reasonable person would do and I still can't figure out the Sparkler tournament.
Could you given a detailed rundown like you've done with Shumaker on how our other 4 signess are doing with their summer teams?
No. And I would if I could. While there could be others, the only two teams I have found that I had an interest in that broadcast each and every game they play with full stats available are the Batbusters and Athletics Mercado. I can only see what my other interests do is if they happen to play either the Batbusters or Mercado. There might be others that do it, but didn't have a player that I wanted to follow, but I highly doubt it. Batbusters and Mercado are a different breed.
You have been a treasure trove of information on Ms. Taylor S. and I appreciate it very much. Looking forward to seeing what she does in the orange & blue.
In that same light, there is a kid on the Batbusters who is a 2026 recruit, who has caught my attention. Her last name is Jindal. I need to double check to see if Tim is following her but I hope so. Seems like someone that he should be contacting at midnight on September 1. I don't know a lot about her but she seems impressive and I need to go back and start over in May and go through everything to see if my off-the-cuff impression is correct. The same thing happened three years ago with Taylor. She was much younger than the rest of the team but somewhere in mid-season that year she got a lot of playing time and I was like, "who is this kid?" Couldn't miss her. And her dynamic last year and this year answered that question. When she committed to us two years ago, I was convinced by that point, and pretty much lost my mind.
TJ retired to follow Avery and Kinsey's last years. I do not know what the future holds for his coaching career.
Skylar hit another HR against Japan, pretty much the only one hitting this last game. It was one thing for Kinzie Hansen to catch over Jocey but I really don't get Kayla Kowalik catching over her. ..
Hansen started at first and then caught later. Jocey didn't even start. They got best pretty bad by Japan
Weird to not play Jocey.i wonder if this team is really great together. You can't jsut have all stars and expect a great team. The National Team will probably fair better. Skylar should have a shot at that roster.
I have nothing but respect for your posts. And the videos you sometime include -- which are interesting -- demonstrate that you are amazing for watching these games from a single crappy camera angle behind home plate. Hat's off to you -- and keep those post coming!
How do you not play the Johnny Bench award winner behind the plate in an international All-Star game? I just plain don’t understand it.
