he Little Leaguers get the majority of the ink
… it’s only natural.
But Gilroy’s 11- and 12-year-old softball All-Stars aren’t the
only local girls who’ve been traveling far and wide to square off
against the best of the best in recent weeks.
Gilroy – The Little Leaguers get the majority of the ink … it’s only natural.
But Gilroy’s 11- and 12-year-old softball All-Stars aren’t the only local girls who’ve been traveling far and wide to square off against the best of the best in recent weeks.
Three Garlic City members of the San Jose Sting travel club recently journeyed to the Aug. 1-8 Amateur Softball Association’s national championship tournaments in their respective age groups. All three – Vanessa Tellez with the Sting’s 10U team, Kylie Herrada with the 14U’s and Amanda Tellez with the 16U’s – helped their squads to identical ninth-place finishes, the best by any Northern California travel club.
For Vanessa Tellez, the trip to Johnson City, Tenn. for the ASA 10U national championship was as much about dodging lighting as hitting pitches.
“It was fun seeing all the other teams and trading pins,” said the left fielder who will start the sixth grade at Brownell Academy this fall.
“But it was really hot and humid, then it’d start to rain and there was thunder and lightning … they had to suspend some of the games.”
Vanessa’s squad finished with a 3-2 record, good for ninth place among 42 teams at the 10U tournament, won by the Corona Angels.
Just next door to Vanessa in Owensboro, Ky., Kylie Herrada and her Sting 14U team were competing with 120 club teams from across the United States. Herrada and the Sting posted an 8-2 record, also good for ninth place at the tournament, in no small part due to the Gilroy High shortstop’s .323 batting average, seven RBIs and pair of game-winning hits.
Like the Sting 10U’s and 16U’s, the 14U’s had finished second at the NorCal Championships to earn the trip to the 14U National Championship, which was won by U.S.A. Athletics of Los Angeles.
Vanessa’s sister Amanda and her Sting 16U squad had a wakeup call when they faced some of the toughest pitching they’d ever seen at the National Championship in Sioux Falls, S.D.
“We faced one pitcher who had a riseball that was almost impossible to hit,” said the Gilroy High junior, who will play third base and left field for the varsity Mustangs in the spring.
The 16U Sting had a 5-2 record at the tournament, where 118 teams squared off for a title won by the SoCal Batbusters.
Herrada and Amanda Tellez have been busy this summer with showcase tournaments in addition to their respective championship qualifiers. They’re both gearing up for fall ball, and then it’s another Tri-County Athletic League season – both played varsity last year – but this time with a new coach.
Former St. Francis and St. Mary’s star Catherine Hallada takes Gilroy High’s softball program from Julie Berggren this spring.
“It’ll be good to have somebody who played in college so recently,” said Herrada.
“We should be pretty good this year,” added Amanda Tellez. “A lot of the teams (in TCAL) had their pitchers graduate, but ours (Sarah Villar) was a junior.”
The lone senior on a 2005 Mustang team that barely missed the CCS playoffs was All-League selection Kayla Aldridge.
Despite their busy schedules, all three girls have followed the Little League team’s progress at the Little League Softball World Series in Portland, Ore., where Gilroy will compete for fifth place in its final game today at noon.
After all, Herrada and Amanda Tellez, who grew up playing T-ball together, saw their own Little League team finish just one win away from the Western Regionals in 2001.
For Vanessa Tellez, Little League is still about the future. She’ll be moving up to 12U with the Sting soon … and then, who knows? Perhaps in a year’s time she’ll be helping another team of Gilroy All-Stars make a run at the Little League World Series.
