KMC All-star team wins district

***image1***The KMC Girls Major All-Star Softball team won their district tournament June 17 and Saturday and will advance to the Little League World Series European Regional Championship in Kutno, Poland, July 1 through 5.

The district tournament’s first game pitted the team from Stuttgart against the KMC, with KMC winning 18-8. The KMC team was led by pitcher Michaela Carlson, who pitched four innings and had seven strikeouts. Michaela also led the offense going 2-2, with three runs scored, a triple, a two-run homerun and two RBIs.

The second game saw KMC face off against Eifel. Eifel started off the scoring with one run in the first inning. KMC followed with seven runs in the bottom half of the first and never looked back, winning 22-8. Miya Raymer was the winning pitcher, going four innings with seven strikeouts. The offense was led by Sara Slabbekoorn and Caroline Hamilton. Sara went 3-4, with three runs scored, and three RBIs from a single, double and triple. Caroline was 2-2, with two runs scored, and three RBIs off a single and a double.

Eiffel was forced to play and defeated Stuttgart 25-13 for the right to play KMC in the championship game. In the championship game, pitcher Jasmine Dell shutdown Eiffel, allowing no runs over three innings, while striking out five batters. After Eiffel was stopped in the first inning, KMC scored 20 unanswered runs over three innings and took the wind out of Eiffel’s sails.

KMC’s offense was led by Vanessa Apodaca, Miya Raymer, and Sara Slabbekoorn. Vanessa was 1-2, with a single, three runs scored, and four stolen bases; Miya was also 1-2 with a two-run inside-the-park homerun, three runs scored, and two RBIs; Sara was 2-3 with two singles, three runs scored, and two stolen bases.

The final out of the tournament came when left fielder Briana Day made a nice play, throwing out an Eiffel runner attempting to score at home. The final score was 23-3.

“Although there were outstanding individual efforts, the team played well together and did a great job of supporting one another. We have some small things to work on over the next week and a half, but I think we will be ready for the challenges we will face in Poland,” said team manager Chris Arnold.