Champions: Arcadia All-Stars Claim Western National Title

The Arcadia girls softball 14U All-Star team made history by simply qualifying for last week’s Western National Girls “B” Fast Pitch Championships in Spokane, Wash.

And as far as first impressions go, they certainly made quite a statement during their first soiree at a national tournament, dominating the competition to claim the ASA Western National Championship.

Arcadia outscored its opponents by a combined score 81-5 in posting an 8-0 record for the tournament.

Arcadia only trailed once throughout the whole tournament, and it came during the championship round against Idaho's Couer d'Alene Crush. The Crush took an early 1-0 lead, but Monrovia’s Elise McCarthy hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth to give Arcadia the lead. McCarthy later added a solo shot to extend the lead to 3-1, and the squad was able to hold on the rest of the way to preserve its title.

“It was pretty unbelievable,” said coach Jon Zernickow. “The girls were absolutely on fire with their bats. Every player on the team was hitting singles, doubles and triples.”

Zernickow added: “It was just unbelievable, the girls just went crazy (when they won the title. I just couldn’t believe the parent support we had up there. A lot of families flew in Friday when we told them how good we were doing. It was pretty unbelievable. It’s never been done. We scored (81) runs and only allowed five (unearned) runs in eight games.”

In addition to McCarthy, Zernickow said Arcadia got key contributions at the plate from Izzy Mejia of Arcadia, Annie Diehl (Arcadia), Lauren Jauregui (Arcadia) and Shelbi Zernickow (Monrovia).

In addition to the offensive explosion put on the Arcadia batters, pitcher Mejia was largely responsible for holding the other squad’s at bay. Zernickow said that Mejia pitched about 90 percent of the tournament, while Alyssa Scimeca of Monrovia took care of the rest.

Below is a rundown of Arcadia’s path to their national title:

Game 1: Arcadia 17, Spokane Heat 1

Game 2: Arcadia 18, La Verne 1

Game 3: Arcadia 11, Rancho Bernardo 0

Game 4: Arcadia 7, Aliso Viejo 0

Game 5: Arcadia 7, West Grove (Garden Grove) 0

Game 6: Arcadia 11, Utah Attitude 0

Game 7: Arcadia 7, Idaho Couer d'Alene Crush 0

Game 8: Arcadia 3, Idaho Couer d'Alene Crush 2