TRAVEL SOFTBALL NATIONAL TOURNAMENTS ROUNDUP: La Mirada stars, other area players have success in summer-ending national tournaments

July 27, 2026

By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X

The best of the best youth softball players nationwide displayed their talents on the biggest stages the sport has to offer, and some local stars were right in the middle of it last week. La Mirada High sisters Reese Hilliard, a Stanford University commit, and Riley Hilliard, who has committed to the University of Oklahoma, had the most success as their travel team, the (Anaheim} Orange County Batbusters-Stith, took home the top prize in The Alliance Fastpitch Championship Series in Kokomo, Indiana.

After winning their pool to begin the week, outscoring the competition 30-3, the Batbusters breezed through the Tier 1 Supers, Regional 1 by defeating the (Charlotte) Team North Carolina 11-1 and the (Overland Park, KS) Aces 5-1 last Wednesday to advance to the Tier 1 Elite 8 where they took care of the (Bowling Green, KY) Louisville Sluggers-Huecker/Norwood 13-3 and the (Pearland, TX) Impact Gold-Jackson 5-2 last Friday.

The next day, the sisters helped their team knock off the (Chattanooga, TN) Fury Platinum X Higdon 6-5 before falling to the (Sugar Land) Texas Bombers Gold 6-4 in eight innings in Game 1 of the best two out of three championship series at Kokomo High School. The Bombers scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth on a three-run home run from Abby Lynch-Buxton with two outs. It was her second home run of the game, and she accounted for all six RBI. Riley Hilliard went one for three and hit a one-out, three-run home run in the top of the third to give the Batbusters a 3-2 lead at the time.

This past Sunday, the Batbusters avenged their loss to the Texas Bombers by posting a 9-6 victory to force Game 3 later in the day. The Batbusters scored four times in the bottom of the third and fourth innings to take a commanding 8-1 lead. Reese Hilliard had a run-scoring single to make it 2-1 and tripled with one out in the next inning to plate two more runs. She went two for three, drove in four and scored twice.

In the final game, the Batbusters again jumped all over the Bombers early and often, scoring four in the top of the second and at least one run in the next five innings to capture the title with an 11-6 victory. Riley Hilliard went three for five, had five RBI, scored twice and hit a pair of home runs while Reese Hilliard went one for two, scored three times and walked three times.

In the 16-Under Tier 1 Supers, Regional 3 the (Artesia) Firecrackers Select RTY 2028, with Gahr High’s Hazel Anglo and Megan Wong on the team, defeated the (Overland Park, KS) Aces 8-0 last Wednesday before losing to the (Oklahoma City) Oklahoma Athletics National-Madden 4-2 later in the day. The team was knocked out of the tournament last Thursday to the Aces 3-2 last Thursday morning.

In the PGF National 16-Under Premier Division championship game last Saturday morning at Bill Barber Park’s Deanna Manning Stadium, the (Riverside) BSC Bengals-Briggs 16R fell to the (Chicago) Beverly Bandits-Lewis/Moran 7-1. With the Bandits already leading 1-0, they put the game away with four runs in the top of the second inning. La Mirada’s Julianna Rivera led off the bottom of the third with a walk on a full count, advanced to second on another walk, this time issued to Maddy Solis and scored on third on a groundout from Kynalea Cacal and scored the team’s only run.

Rivera did not have a hit in her team’s final six games as the Bengals, who had lost to the (Atlanta) GA Impact Premier-Burrell 2-1 last Friday, won the next three games in the losers bracket to reach the championship game, Two of those three games were consecutive 6-0 and 8-0 wins over the (Phoenix) Arizona Storm-Captain.

In other PGF news involving area players, Kayleigh Allen (Gahr/University of Kansas commit) had a .264 batting average in 30 games and Peyton Kingery (Valley Christian High/University of North Texas) ended the summer batting .351 in 27 games for the (Yorba Linda) BSC Bengals-Briggs, who were eliminated by the (Lexington) Texas Blaze United-Robertson 5-1 last Friday after winning five straight games to stay alive in the losers bracket. Allen and Kingery each went hitless in two at-bats against the Blaze, but Kingery went seven for 12 with six runs batted in, a run scored and a double in the last four games of that winning streak. In her 27 games since the end of high school, Kingery had 20 hits, drove in 17, scored 12 runs, was issued nine walks, had four doubles and just as many home runs while Allen had 14 hits, scored 17 runs, had 11 RBI, walked eight times, had four doubles and a pair of home runs.

Gahr’s Mylah Burrowes went one for four and scored a run as the (Mission Viejo) California Cruisers Gold-Sievers dropped a 14-7 contest to the BSC Bengals-Briggs last Thursday. Burrowes ended the summer as the third leading hitter on the team with a .438 average, 21 hits, 17 RBI, 15 runs, walked 11 times, and hit five home runs.

The trio of Valley Christian players-Choyce Chambers (Sacramento State University), Aubrielle Ramirez (Long Beach City College) and Rachel Zhang-all finished within the top nine in hitting for the (Buena Park) USA Athletics-RML which lost its only two bracket games. Zhang was third with a .458 average in 29 games this summer with 33 hits, 17 runs and 14 RBI while Chambers was sixth with a .395 average in 32 games, scored 39 runs with 32 hits and 27 RBI. Ramirez batted .357 in 40 games, had 25 hits and scored 25 runs while walking 14 times.

Isabella Gonzalez (Gahr/University of Nevada commit) continued to shine for the (Long Beach) USA Athletics Gold-Rogers, but the team was knocked out by the (Des Moines) Iowa Premier National-Shannon/Carter 4-3 in 10 innings last Thursday. Gonzalez did not pitch in the last two games, but went six innings in relief against the (Santa Clarita) Southern California Choppers-Fausett last Wednesday night,  allowing three hits and no runs with a pair of strikeouts, then started against the (Pinole, CA) Universal Bay Area-Tatro last Thursday where she went five innings , allowed three hits and one run in a 6-1 victory.