The Long Beach Heartwell Fast Pitch 10U Softball All-Star silver team is starting the California State Championships in Lancaster today. The games will last for three days.
The silver teams from local leagues are not made up of the top players, so they usually lose in the early rounds, but this group of local youth softball players have defied the odds and reached the top state tournament.
This group first won a tournament in San Diego and then took the District tournament to qualify for the California State Championships which will have 140 teams and be the largest softball tournament in the country.
“On our run we have won multiple extra inning games,” coach Michael Sullivan said. “Last (month) when we had to change fields midway through the last inning because the sprinklers came on… then we had to suspend the game because of darkness and resume it at 7:15 am in the morning. The girls were there at 6:15 am warming up in the parking lot because the field gates were still locked… During suspension we even learned our cleanup hitter and stud first baseman tested positive for COVID so (they missed) the rest of the tournament. We put up 6 runs in the top of the tie-breaker inning and then shut them down 1-2-3 to win and become the first team at Districts to qualify for States.”
Come back for updates on how Heartwell did in the State Championships.
LB Heartwell 10U Silver
Name Number
Kaitlyn Alas 29
Bella Alcaraz 16
Gabby Correa 15
Angela Houlemard 9
Jorlena Jimenez 17
Valentina Lopez 27
Harlow Menold 13
Maya Rivera 3
Abigail Rodriguez 19
Sam Rosas-Camacho 10
Giuliana Saenz-Castruita 8
Yiyi Sullivan 11
Claressa Tovar 20
Manager – Michael Sullivan
Coaches – David Rivera, Horracio Correa, Ronnie Alas, Miguel Lopez
