A year ago, Sam Charles took his Pahrump Youth Softball Association Gold 12-and-under softball team to Las Vegas and won the Spring Fling hosted by the Northwest Girls Softball League. And Charles’ team made an impression.
“Everybody knew us, but I had a completely different team this time,” Charles said. “Only three girls returned, and the rest of them were new.”
The new-look team put up the same results, dominating its eight-team group.
PYSA Gold crushed the host Northwest team 12-2 in the championship game Sunday to claim a second consecutive Spring Fling championship.
They won two games Saturday by a combined score of 21-6, giving them the top seed for Sunday’s action. They faced a bit of a struggle in the semifinals, trailing early and standing even at 7-7 after three innings, but a six-run outburst in the fourth effectively ended it.
“The strength of our team is we just hit the crap out of the ball,” Charles said. “But we play great defense.
“We teach fundamental softball. They just produced a lot of runs, and when the ball was hit to them we got a lot of outs. We literally live off the ground ball. If we can throw ground ball pitches, we get outs.”
Doing the bulk of the pitching was Katarina Crow, supported by Ava Charles. Each plays second base when not in the circle. “They’re very athletic, so we keep them where the ball is going to be hit,” Sam Charles said.
Crow was especially effective Sunday.
“Kat just carried us,” Charles said. “Fourteen strikeouts combined in the semifinal and final. Ava homered in the semifinal and again in the final. Alexa Cleveland had struggled much of the year, but she hit the ball really well in the tournament. So did Haven Nelson. But all of them really came up big.”
Cleveland is the team’s catcher, while Nelson played shortstop. Alondra Chavez, Lizzie DeAngelis and Kaitlyn Martin were in the outfield, with Alyssa Fasking at first base and Taylor Brown at third.
“When I ask them to bunt, they get the bunts down. When it was time for a big hit, they got big hits. … It seemed like every time we had a big moment come up, the girls came up in that one moment and just produced runs.”
That ability to get big hits from anywhere in the lineup was vital because PYSA Gold had no bench over the weekend.
“We have 10 girls on the team but one was in California, so we came in with nine girls,” Charles said. “In fact, these nine girls bought into each other really early in the season when we started practicing.”
The dominance they showed in the Spring Fling was almost effortless, Charles said.
“They played so freely, like it was a backyard softball game and they didn’t have any worries,” he said.
There are more than nine quality young softball players in Pahrump. The PYSA Maroon team also reached the semifinals of the 12-and-under tournament, losing there to the Northwest team PYSA Gold squad defeated in the final.
But it’s more than that. Pahrump also has a 10-and-under team, two 8-and-under teams and a 14-and-under team. These girls are the future of a high school program that just wrapped up its second consecutive Sunset League regular-season championship.
“We’re trying to coach at the high school level,” said Charles, in his third year of coaching in the PYSA. “We’re preparing our 10-, 12- and 14-year-olds for high school. We want them to succeed at the highest level they can.
“My philosophy is we teach fundamental softball. That will be a success at any level.”
And that takes a lot of work and a lot of cooperation. Charles expressed his thanks to those who contribute so much to youth sports in Pahrump, from Dom and Celeste Sandoval at the PYSA to his assistant coaches, Steve Moody and Bill Brown, to the International Association of Firefighters Pahrump Local 4068, a team sponsor the past two years.
But he had special praise for Rich Lauver, officially the PYSA vice president, but much more than that in Pahrump youth sports.
“Rich Lauver is a big influence in PYSA, but he’s been a blessing to all softball and baseball in Pahrump for many, many years,” Charles said. “He’s a real inspiration to the girls. He knows how to push them outside their limits.
“The way he approaches the game, the way he encourages the girls, his passion for the game, it’s all very contagious. Once he starts talking, his passion and his desire are very contagious. I think that’s felt all over Pahrump.”
Contact Sports Editor Tom Rysinski at trysinski@pvtimes.com On Twitter:@pvtimes