USA SOFTBALL CHAMPIONS CUP – Area players tune up before PGF National Championships

July 14, 2025

By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X

IRVINE-Nearly 10 area travel softball players for their respective 18-Under teams spent anywhere from four to six days competing in the 22nd annual Champions Cup, the last major showcase tournament before the national championships in respective organizations take centerstage next week. When it was all said and done, recent La Mirada High graduate Angelyna Conde and her (Anaheim) West Coast Lady Dukes-Blanco team advanced to the semifinals this past Monday at Harvard Park.

The WCLD won all four games during pool play action, outscoring the opposition 36-8, then defeated the (Los Angeles) Firecrackers-MG 6-2 last Saturday and the Fresno Force-Enriquez/Romero 13-8 and the (Los Angeles) Athletics Mercado-Gurrola 5-4 this past Sunday to get to the semifinals.

In the semifinals, the WCLD were tied with the (Livermore, CA) Batbusters-Ching 1-1 after three innings before surrendering solo tallies in the top of the fourth and fifth innings. The WCLD got a run back in the bottom of the fifth but would fall 3-2.

Conde, a third baseman who will be attending Texas Tech University next month, went eight for 20 with 10 runs batted in, scored nine runs and had three doubles.

Recent Artesia High graduate Alea Medina, who will be going to California State University, Dominguez Hills, plays for the (Los Alamitos) Wildcats-Hunter which went 1-3 in pool play action, then fell to the (Castro Valley) Extreme-Orta/Cortez 9-3 last Saturday in the single elimination playoffs. Medina, a center fielder, went six for 14 in the five games, scored three times and drove in a run.

The (Redondo Beach) USA Athletics-Phillips/Lehr, with Valley Christian High pitcher and outfielder Rachel Zhang, also won their pool, going 3-0-1 while allowing five runs. In the playoffs, they doubled up the (Whittier) USA Athletics-Garcia 8-4 last Saturday before falling to the (Las Vegas) Lil Rebels-Gordie/TC 4-3 this past Sunday. Zhang did not appear in any of the games during the Champions Cup.

Playing for the USA Athletics-Garcia are Cierra Contreras and Abbygail Perez of Gahr High and Nuella Anyama of Whitney High. That team split its four pool play games, then eased past the (Fontana) Arsenal Fastpitch 9-1 this past Saturday before falling to the USA Athletics-Phillips/Lehr. Contreras was nine of 17, had nine RBI, scored five runs, had three doubles and two home runs in all six games while Perez was hitless in seven at-bats and scored once in five games. She also pitched in three games, totaling eight and two-thirds innings, allowing 17 hits, 10 earned runs, walked five and struck out four.

Finally, La Mirada’s Bettie Mae Acevedo and Mya Laroya of Gahr play for the (Whittier) BSC Bengals-Gurule, which went 2-0-2 in pool play before slamming the (Livermore, CA) Lady Hustle-Marshall 14-0 last Saturday. Later in the evening, the BSC Bengals-Gurule lost to the (San Clemente) Watson Wolfpack 9-0. Acevedo was hitless in four at-bats and pitched six innings, yielding seven hits, no earned runs, walked 10 and struck out four. Laroya had two hits in eight at-bats, scored once and drove in a run.

In the 14-Under Division, the (Buena Park) Cal A’s-Jackson, in just its third major tournament of an organization, all coming this summer, went 2-2 in pool play action, then fell to the Corona Angels-Carter/Tyson 6-2 last Saturday morning at Great Park in Irvine.

“I think that we played a really good team, and we competed really well against them,” said head coach Jennifer Jackson, a former Gahr High standout who was Jennifer Willig in her high school days. “We just didn’t capitalize on the opportunities that we needed to as far as swinging at strikes when we had runners in positions and taking too many strikes.”

The Cal A’s-Jackson lost its first two pool play games last Thursday before blasting the (Rosemead) Cal Panthers-MM 19-0 last Friday, then knocked off the (Downey) Nemesis Elite-Apacible 8-4 later in the day. Against the Corona Angels, they did not have a runner reach base until the top of the fourth inning when the Angels were already leading 3-0. The first run for the Cal A’s-Jackson came in the top of the fifth when pitcher Brooklyn Brush (Cypress High) was hit by a pitch and scored with two outs when first baseman Liliana Larios (La Mirada High) reached on an error.

The second run came in the sixth when catcher Rylee Jackson (Gahr High) tripled with two outs and came home on a single from Brush. Shortstop Kenadee Ellis (Savanna High), center fielder Edie Montano (Valley Christian High), Brush and Jackson accounted for the only hits the team would get. However, the Cal A’s-Jackson were plagued by four errors and all six runs the Corona Angels scored were unearned. In the five games played in the Champions Cup, the Cal A’s-Jackson committed 17 errors and of the 23 runs allowed, nine were earned.

“We definitely always need to practice on our defense,” said Jackson. “I think that we really need to work on the small things because as a whole, we do really well. But it’s little things that we get thrown off on.”

The team, which has already competed in the Triple Crown Sports Zoom into June Showcase Tournament and the Premier Girls Fastpitch Southern California Qualifier last month, will play in the PGF National Championships July 27-Aug. 3.

“I think we have a really good shot,” said Jackson. “I think that we showed our true potential and true colors when we went to the qualifier and we competed against some really, really tough teams.”