Irvine girls softball team has best showing ever with third place finish at nationals

The IGSA softball team took third place at the national tourney.

The Irvine Girls Softball Association 10-and-under gold softball team capped a great all-star season by placing third at the USA National Softball Fast Pitch Championships last week.

The team finished the all-star season with a 36-8 record, placed first in the Orange County District Championship, finished third in the California State Tournament, and wound up third at the national tourney.

Coach Greg Sasaki said, “This team had a goal to just get better at softball each week, the winning was just a by-product of working hard and having fun at the same time.”

The third place finish in the national tournament is the highest placement for an IGSA softball team in any age division in the 20 year history of the organization, according to Sasaki.

The USA National Championship Tournament was held in Southern California for the first time ever and 37 teams competed in the 10-and-under division during the week long tournament in Camarillo.

Coach Jay Tamkoc said, “In a week long national softball tournament you have a parade with pin trading, pool play games, then bracket play begins but they also build in some time to do a few fun activities with the girls, so the coaches took the team for a group surf lesson at the beach and that was a blast and probably what they will remember the most about this week.”

On Tuesday, July 31, the Irvine team started the tournament off well with a victory over San Mateo as Irvine pitcher Mia Tamkoc pitched a no-hitter.

Irvine catcher Abby Sasaki helped the offense get rolling by hitting a two-run home run in the first inning and  later in the first shortstop Gianna Ioja also hit a home run.

In the second game, Irvine played 4S Ranch from San Diego. Pitcher Kiyomi Okamoto continued the dominantIrvine pitching by allowing only one hit while also earning the win.

Coach Casey Harris said, “Kiyomi had a great all-star season for us getting 15 wins vs. only three losses.”

The Irvine girls then entered bracket Play on Thursday, Aug. 2 by facing a tough El Segundo team and managed a 4-1 victory.

“Our offense struggled in the El Segundo game as we only had one hit but we found a way to score a few runs by using our team speed,” said Tamkoc.

Gianna Ioja had the lone Irvine hit and Mia Tamkoc got the victory in the pitching circle while going six innings with nine strikeouts.

Irvine then faced Rancho Cucamunga ACE and came away with a 2-0 victory. Ioja pitched a dominate game allowing one hit with 12 strike outs in six innings.  Audrey Song was the hitting star for Irvine gong 3-for-3 with an RBI.

That win set up a match-up with long-time friendly rival Huntington Beach and the offense opened up to propel the IGSA team to a 12-0 run rule victory.  Payton Harris and Baylie Wong had two hits each to lead Irvine.  Okamoto pitched a shutout for Irvine.

Irvine then suffered its first loss of the tournament Saturday afternoon to the eventual national champions Westlake – Agoura Hills  sending the Irvine team to the losers bracket in the double elimination tournament.

On Sunday morning the team bounded back by eliminating Rancho Trabuco 9-0 to stay alive in the National tournament.  Ioja pitched a no-hitter against Rancho Trabuco.  Abby Sasaki and Audrey Song had two RBI each to pace the Irvine offense.

Irvine then faced La Mirada and came away with a 9-1 victory. Maddie Heimann had a big hit and RBI to get the offense going.  Tamkoc got the win giving up two hits over six innings and also added six strikeouts.

Coach Harris added, “Mia earned her 15th all-star victory with the La Mirada win giving us two 15-game winners on the pitching staff,  which was part of our success.”

Carson Cruz and Ioja rounded out the tough IGSA pitching group.

The team’s season ended in the third consecutive game of the day, a 6-5 loss to Placentia Yorba Linda Sunday afternoon.

Irvine came away with a third place national finish.

“Facing all this competition for a week long tournament is tough and only one team is going to win but the true victory here is the fact that these young ladies are growing into strong females that will be strong women in the future and I like to remind them that their tomorrow is so bright and to keep looking up,” Sasaki said.

Members of the team were Carson Cruz, Ellie Daboub, Payton Harris, Dyllan Harris, Maddie Heimann, Gianna Ioja, Katie Liu, Diya Malik, Kiyomi Okamoto, Katelyn Park, Abby Sasaki, Audrey Song, Mia Tamkoc, and Baylie Wong.

The coaching staff consisted of Jay Tamkoc, Rich Song, Casey Harris, Greg Sasaki and team parent Audra Heimann.