16Ured

BAZETTA - A championship game is supposed to be a battle through the final pitch. Fans got exactly that in the 16-and-under PONY National Fastpitch Softball Championship game between the Connecticut Eliminators Red and the Dixie Chicks.

After playing three previous games during the final day of competition, the score was tied after seven innings of regulation. In the bottom of the 10th, the Eliminators' Stephanie Belanger stepped to the plate and drove a single down the right-field line. The hit scored Emily Courtney, giving the Eliminators a 3-2 victory, and a national championship.

"I can't even put into words what this feels like," Belanger said. "I just knew this was my second chance and that I had to do it. Everyone wanted this so bad, I knew I had to pull through."

Belanger's first chance came in the eighth inning when the Eliminators loaded the bases with no outs. In that inning, Belanger hit into a fielder's choice for the first out. The Eliminators eventually stranded all three runners, and the game continued.

The Dixie Chicks couldn't score, either. In all three extra innings, they stranded s runner on third base.

The Eliminators finally broke through in the 10th. Courtney started the inning on second thanks to the international tiebreaker rule. Jocelyn Russo sacrificed her to third. The Dixie Chicks then intentionally walked Kim Bogen and Johanna Clair to load the bases for Belanger.

The rest is PONY history.

Rachel Carey, a former player with the Eliminators, was killed in a car crash six years ago at the age of 16. Since then, the organization, which was founded by her parents, has kept her memory alive by wearing the No. 2 on their shorts and yelling her name at the end of every game.

"When I got to first base I started crying, I don't even know why," Belanger said. "I will remember this day forever."

This is the first national championship for the CT Eliminators organization in any age group. And even as the players, coaches and parents were elated with the accomplishment, they all took time to point to the sky to honor a player no longer with them.

"I'm happy for No. 2 and her family," Eliminators coach Bill Russo said. "She's what a lot of these girls look up to. This one was for her."

Said Bogen, the Eliminators' pitcher:

"I personally never knew her, but I know she was a great pitcher and a great person, so for that I admire her.I knew she was looking down on us today."

And Bogen made her entire team proud with her performance. Coming on in relief in the fifth inning, Bogen shut down the Dixie Chicks, allowing one hit and striking out four.

"She's a lights-out, fierce competitor," Russo said. "I think she threw about 100 innings for us this week."

The Dixie Chicks scored their two runs in the third inning. DeeDee Samuels started the inning with a single and reached third on two groundouts. Alexa Tuck drove in Samuels with a single, and Heather Kirby doubled home Tuck.

The Eliminators scored the first run of the game, when Clair singled home Christina Gelardi.

Gelardi also was responsible for the second Eliminators' run, with a solo home run in the fifth.

"At some point in this tournament, every one of these girls did something to get us to this game," Russo said. "Stephanie had the hit, but it was all 11 of them who got us here."