The Plover Nationals 10U Fastpitch softball team won the USA Softball Girls B 10-Under Northern National Championship in North Mankato, Minn., Sunday, July 28. Team members are, front row, from left: Ryland Mayek, Emalee Petrick, Ashley Gagas, Katie Kornowski, Rory Salvesen, Brooklyn Berrens, Aaliyah Newby, Ellie Strong and Peyton Brooks. Back row: Head coach Chad Newby, assistant coach Dan Peskie, Ember Akers, assistant coach Travis Mayek, Oakley Omernik, Addison Peskie and assistant coach Nick Akers. (Contributed photo)

Portage County Gazette

By John Kemmeter

The Plover Nationals 10U Fastpitch softball team capped a dominant run this season by winning a National Title.

The 10U Nationals run-ruled each of their seven opponents by a combined 106-9 margin to win the USA Softball Girls B 10-Under Northern National Championship in North Mankato, Minn., Thursday through Sunday, July 25-28.

“I knew going into the season that we had a chance to win state and a chance to win Nationals, just based on these girls have been playing together since they’ve been seven, eight years old,” said Plover Nationals 10U head coach Chad Newby. “So our expectations were high.

“But the experience overall was awesome, the girls being 10 years old and being able to do what they did,” he said. “And hopefully we can keep adding on to that.”

After receiving their own welcome home parade days earlier, Peyton Brooks, Aaliyah Newby, Oakley Omernik, Katie Kornowski and Ember Akers of the Plover Nationals 10U Fastpitch softball team wait to greet the Plover 12U and 16U softball teams at Woyak Park in Plover Wednesday, July 31. (John Kemmeter photo)

The Plover Nationals 10U Fastpitch team went unbeaten to win the USA Softball Class B State Championship in Wausau July 11-14 and earn a trip to the Northern National Championships, where they entered the tournament with a 23-1 record this season.

Plover opened with a 15-0 win over St. Paul North Red (Minn.) in three innings Thursday morning, as Ember Akers and Ellie Strong combined on a no-hitter, while Akers finished 3-for-3 with a double, triple, and two RBI; Brooklyn Berrens had a home run and three RBI; and Addison Peskie had a triple and three RBI.

The Nationals followed with a 9-1 win over the Mankato Peppers (Minn.) in five innings Friday, July 26, as Akers struck out 11 in five innings for the win and went 2-for-3 with two RBI at the plate, while Berrens was 2-for-2 with a double, and Oakley Omernik went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI to lead the offense.

Plover started bracket play with a 15-0 win in three innings Friday afternoon over the Jaguars White of Jordan, Minn., as Strong struck out seven in a no-hitter, Akers drove in three runs, and Rory Salvesen, Berrens, Peskie and Ryland Mayek each had two RBI.

In their third game Friday, the Nationals rolled to a 23-0 win in three innings over the Mankato Peppers, with Akers striking out seven in a no-hitter and the team racking up 21 hits in the win, as Berrens went 4-for-4 with three triples and six RBI, and Peskie was 3-for-4 with a double, two triples and three RBI.

“The experience of it out there is awesome, those facilities are awesome, and just the experience of being at a National Tournament for the girls,” said coach Newby. “The girls had fun, a lot of crazy nights at the hotel and trying to get them settled down.

“They’re having fun running around, chasing each other around, and we’re trying to settle them down because we’re playing in a National Tournament,” he said.

Needing a pair of wins Saturday, July 27, to advance to the National Championship Game, Plover opened with a 16-1 win in six innings over the Millard Fury of Omaha, Neb. Berrens went 4-for-5 with a home run and three RBI, Akers was 4-for-5 with a double and five RBI, Ashley Gagas went 2-for-3 with two RBI, and Aaliyah Newby and Strong both drove in two runs, while Akers struck out 10 and allowed two hits in the win.

The Nationals followed with a 15-7 win in five innings over the Fairbault Fury Purple of Fairbault, Minn., Saturday afternoon, as Omernik was 4-for-4 with a double and four RBI, Berrens went 3-for-3 with a double and three RBI, Akers was 2-for-3 with two doubles and three RBI, Peskie was 2-for-3, and Strong had a double and two RBI to lead a 17-hit attack for the team.

The win sent Plover to the National Championship Sunday as the last unbeaten team in the double-elimination tournament, where it faced the Millard Fury for the second time in two days.

The Nationals struck fast with eight runs in the bottom of the first inning to take an 8-0 lead, and they went on to a 13-0 win in four innings to claim the National Championship.

“I’ve never seen a team hit the ball the way we do,” said coach Newby. “From top to bottom in our order, we’ve got five or six girls that can hit it to the fence, and you don’t see that very often at the 10U level.

“(Usually) you’ve got three or four good hitters, but our lineup top to bottom was just pretty solid, there’s not a weak spot,” he said. “I knew if we hit the ball and our pitching is as it’s been, we had a good chance to win it.”

The Plover Nationals 10U Fastpitch softball team after it won the USA Softball Girls B 10-Under Northern National Championship at Caswell Park in North Mankato, Minn., Sunday, July 28. (Contributed photo)

Akers struck out four and walked three over four innings to earn the win in a one-hit shutout, while Berrens went 3-for-3 with two RBI, Peskie was 2-for-2 with two doubles, Gagas had three RBI, Akers was 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI, and Katie Kornowski had two RBI, as Plover pounded out 14 hits in the win.

Plover outscored its opponents by a 106-9 margin to go 7-0 at the National Tournament, as the team hit .541 with 98 hits in seven games, while the team’s pitchers finished with a 0.97 ERA.

“It was just a good team effort overall,” said coach Newby. “Everybody played, everybody contributed.”

Aaliyah Newby and Brooklyn Berrens lead the National Champion Plover 10U Nationals Fastpitch softball team onto FirePro Field during a welcome home celebration at Woyak Park in Plover Wednesday, July 31. The Plover 10U, 12U and 16U teams each won a USA Softball Class B Northern National Championship Sunday, July 28, and were honored during the ceremony, along with the Plover 13U Fastptich team, which placed third while playing an age level up in the 14U Northern National Championships. (John Kemmeter photo)

The win ended a season that saw Plover win its first nine games of the season, before a 6-4 loss June 16 to the Class A Heartland Havoc from the Quad Cities in Illinois and Iowa, which had already played 60 games in the season at that point.

The Nationals followed with 21 consecutive victories to capture the National Title, as team members included Akers, Berrens, Peyton Brooks, Gagas, Kornowski, Mayek, Aaliyah Newby, Omernik, Peskie, Emalee Petrick, Salvesen and Strong.

Along the way, the 10U Nationals combined to outscore their opponents by a 399-34 margin this season, as their pitchers struck out 244 batters in 131 innings and allowed only 54 hits in 31 games.

“(I’ll remember) just watching the girls develop from Day 1 to here, and just being able to enjoy the moment,” said coach Newby. “We had our own little parade on Sunday, we got back a day before the other two teams, and we had a little ceremony (at Woyak Park) just for our own team.

“And we’ve got a great group of families,” he said. “We practice year-round pretty much, we’ve got a nice facility to go to in the wintertime to practice, and our families are very supportive of what we’re doing.”

The Plover Nationals 10U Fastpitch softball team lines up on the field at FirePro Field during a welcome home ceremony at Woyak Park in Plover Wednesday, July 31. (John Kemmeter photo)

The Plover Nationals 10U Fastpitch softball team’s USA Softball Girls B 10-Under Northern National Championship Trophy on display at FirePro Field during a ceremony at Woyak Park in Plover Wednesday, July 31. (John Kemmeter photo)