Ponytail Sluggers win Boys & Girls Club Championship

Late-inning comeback seals win in weekend tourney

ralphhardin@gmail.com It took some clutch hitting to get the job done, but in a hard-fought battle for the 2019 Crittenden County Boys & Girls Club championship, the Ponytail Sluggers outlasted the Blue Angels to take home the victory and the championship rings. This past Saturday, the Boys & Girls Club held their postseason softball tournament out at Tilden Rodgers Park. In the opening game, the Ponytail Sluggers relied on solid hitting and stingy defense to beat the Ice Queens 6-0 and advance to the final.

Across the bracket, the short-handed Diamond Divas put up a valiant effort, but couldn’t hold off the Blue Angels, who came back to win 11-6.

That set up an afternoon showdown between the Sluggers and the Angels.

After a back-and-forth contest in which the lead changed several times, Angel Chloe Miller made what was at the time a potential game-saving running catch in the outfield off the bat of Claire Brinkley. Miller then scored the go-ahead run in the top of the fifth to give the Angels a 6-5 lead.

But it was Brinkley came around to score the game-tying run the next half-inning. Then, with two outs, Reese Goodwin drove in the winning run a few batters later to give the Sluggers a 7-6 win.