PORTLAND, OR - Synergy94 (Santa Clarita, CA) defeated Santee Heat 3-1 to win the 12U “A” Western Nationals, held Aug. 1-5, 2007 at the William V. Owens Softball Complex in Portland, OR.

Synergy94 started their march to the title by beating Lil Rebels and Clovis Rockets (Clovis, CA). They continued their winning ways by beating Lokahi (HI) and Central California Dirt Dogs (Hanford, CA) and reached the championship game by beating SoCal Starz (Riverside, CA) 7-1.

Meanwhile, the Santee Heat (Santee, CA) started the tournament with wins over SoCal Blast and the Island Ladies before losing to SoCal Starz 10-0. They fought their way back in the loser’s bracket by beating SoCal Blast again, the Central California Dirt Dogs and the SoCal Starz 9-1 to get into the championship game.

In the title game after Santee went down in order Synergy94 struck quickly. After Karlee Bickford led off with a walk and was bunted to second by Sissy Gonzalez, Tracy Chandless doubled to drive in Bickford. Rochelle Jenkins walked and Sarah Solano’s single scored Chandless for a 2-0 lead.

The game stayed 2-0 until the fourth. With two outs, Bickford and Gonzalez both singled. Chandless produced her third hit of the game to score Bickford and push the lead to 3-0.

Santee mounted a challenge in the fifth as Felicia Vincent walked and was bunted over to second by Hailey Burton. Amber Schisler singled to drive in Vincent to cut the lead to 3-1 but that was all the scoring Santee could muster.
Synergy pitcher Taylor Stewart came on in relief and struck out the side in the seventh to secure the win and give Synergy the 2007 12U “A” National Championship.

Taking third place was SoCal Starz from Riverside, CA and Central California Dirt Dogs (Hanford, CA) took home fourth place.