The Minnesota Moose Nelson softball team — featuring Brianna Corey, Payton Williams and Hailey Fitzpatrick from Becker — finished third at Nationals in Kansas City last Saturday. The team consisted of players from five high schools including Anoka, Becker, Blaine, Forest Lake and St Francis. The Moose finished the tournament with a 9-2 record. They won all three pool play games including victories over two Missouri teams and one Iowa team.
In their first game, the Moose took on the Trojanettes 98 team from Maryville, MO. Their record was 25-14 and were averaging four runs a game. The Moose stymied the Trojanettes, beating them 4-1.
Moving on to the second round, the Moose faced off against the Iowa Blitz-Kimberly team out of Urbandale, IA, who had a 14-11 record. The Moose had no problem sending the Blitz to the loser’s bracket when they thumped them by a score of 9-0.
In game three, the Moose took on the KC Athletics Black team from Lees Summit, MO who came into the tournament with a 16-12 record. The Moose stomped the Athletics 7-2 to move on to play a team from their own state.
Minnesota Moose Nelson earned a first place seed coming out of pool play and started bracket play Thursday, facing some familiar faces.
Game four featured the Moose Nelson team pitted against the MN Moose Blue team that had a 15-9 and was averaging three runs scored a game. The Moose Nelson team was averaging five runs a game and knocked out the Moose Blue team by a score of 8-2.
Moose Nelson suited up to play the team from Topeka, KS called Nemesis and the Moose took care of business with a 4-1 win. That win advanced Moose Nelson to the semi-finals against Team Nebraska 16’s Elite.
Moose Nelson played well, but lost a close game to Nebraska, 9-6 to fall out of contention for the national crown. Team Nebraska went on to lose their next game to Mac N Seitz Select 16A out of Kansas City, MO, who eventually won the national title.
Moose Nelson fell to the loser’s bracket but came back to win four more games — including a rematch win over the Nebraska team, to take third place.
Many of the games were played in 110º heat index weather or higher, but the girls didn’t seem to mind. The Moose lost their final game of the tournament against the Stateline Fury (IL) in eight innings, battling from behind three times.
“Sometimes you truly can capture lightning in a bottle and that is exactly what happened in 2015 with the 16u elite MN Moose fastpitch softball team,” said Head Coach Mike Nelson.
“In one season this group of young women grew so tight so fast that is shocked me at how good we became.”
Nelson has been a coach for 17 years and has had a few very successful seasons, but he predicted those seasons were going to be amazing before they started. This season did not start out so well so he was a little unsure where they might end up.
“We have girls from five different high schools and when the season started they looked lost and scared to compete,” he said. “Our message to the girls was, ‘one for 12 and 12 for one’, so they would learn to root for one another no matter what.”
Nelson says the girls bought into the team concept and competed against all of the top club teams in the midwest for most of the year.
