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to keep up with game times, dates, and locations. More details on recent events can be found on the Event Results Section. Check out individual roster pages, which include SAT scores, athletic, and academic honors. Questions? Contact Coach Phil Mumma directly at 925-825-6274.
Sunday, August 24 Breana Kostreba commits to CAL
Sorcerer third baseman Breana Kostreba has made a verbal commitment to accept a softball scholarship to the University of California.
Kostreba, who is beginning her sophomore year at Aptos (CA) H.S., recently gave her commitment to Bears Head Coach Diane Ninemire. Kostreba had made an earlier visit to the Berkeley campus. "I had a great visit," Kostreba said. "I loved the campus. I'm focusing my studies in engineering and Cal offers many engineering options. I am also impressed with Coach Ninemire and her staff and I know I will be playing in a great softball program. I knew Cal was the right choice for me," she said. Kostreba carries a 4.0 GPA at Aptos High. An all-league performer, she also was selected last fall to attend the prestigious National Futures Elite Camp, one of only four 2011 players nation-wide to be selected.
Breana is one of a number of present and former Sorcerer players who are playing or will compete for the Bears. Junior Marissa Drewrey and soph Val Arioto are current Cal mainstays, and they will be joined by current Sorcerers 2009 infielder Jordan Wallace and 2010 second baseman Ashley Decker and 2010 first baseman Alex Robben.
Last season nearly three dozen former Sorcerers played in Division I college programs across the nation.
Sorcerer began the double elimination bracket on Tuesday morning, August 5th, by defeating the Georgia Fire with a score of 7-2. Allard, Decker, Burns, and Suitos each had 2 hits. C. Moore, Kostreba, Wallace, and White each had 1 hit. Burns had 3 RBIs. Moore, Kostreba, White, and Wallace each had 1 RBI.
On Tuesday afternoon, Sorcerer defeated the Maryland Wagner's Gold 9-2. Decker, Robben, C. Moore, Burns, and Suitos each had 2 hits. Allard, Kostreba, Wallace, and White had 1 hit. C. Moore had 3 RBIs. Robben, Burns, Kostreba, and White each had 1 RBI. Notably, Sorcerer pitcher Jessica Moore gave up only 2 hits in this pitcher's duel.
On Thursday, August, Sorcerer lost to the the Arizona Hot Shots 2-1 in a game viewed by most as a rematch following the Sorcerer defeat of the Hot Shots in the Independence Day tournament in Boulder. Wallace led the team with 2 hits. Robben and Kostreba had 1 hit. Wallace had an RBI.
The loss to the Hot Shots dropped Sorcerer into the losers' bracket against the 2007 National Champion Worth Firecrackers on Friday morning. Sorcerer bats would need to be hot to defeat the Firecrackers, and Sorcerer did not disappoint.
In a game riddled by errors, 2 for Sorcerer and 3 for the Firecrackers, Sorcerer defeated the Firecrackers 9-7. Decker and White had 2 hits. Allard, Burns, C. Moore, and Suitos each had 1 hit. Decker and Burns has 2 RBIs. Moore, White, and Suitos each had 1 RBI. Check out the write-up from spysoftball.com.
On Friday afternoon, Sorcerer faced the So Cal Athletics in a fight for a place in the top 12. After a gutsy performance that morning, Sorcerer came back flat, and committed 4 errors to lose to the Athletics 5-2. C. Moore had 2 hits. Allard, Robben, Burns, and Wallace each had 1 hit. Wallace had an RBI.
Sorcerer completed the tournament with a 13th place finish, having won a total of 5 games (2 in pool play) and lost to the 3rd place AZ Hot Shots and the T5th place So Cal Athletics. This placement marks the best achievement of a Sorcerer team at Gold Nationals, and the best of any Northern California team this year. Game by game offensive stats are available here.
Sunday, August 10 Sorcerer Celebrates Our Recent Graduates
Three Sorcerer players graduated this year from high school and enter college in the fall. Each led Sorcerer in a very special way.
Whitney Shaw (right), a 5-season Sorcerer veteran, graduated from Redwood High School in Larkspur and will matriculate to Harvard University this fall. Following a season-ending knee injury in Boulder, Whitney carried Sorcerer to the Boulder Championship with a 3-run homer that helped Sorcerer to defeat the (2008 ASA Nationals Runner-Up) Corona Angels-Tyson.
Maya Burns (middle), a 4-season Sorcerer veteran, graduated from St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco and will matriculate to Stanford University this fall. During 2008 Nationals, perhaps in deference to her outstanding defense as starting catcher, the 2007 National Champion Worth Firecrackers never attempted to steal on Maya as Sorcerer eliminated the Firecrackers from 2008 Nationals competition.
Courtney Moore (left), a 2-season Sorcerer veteran, graduated from St. Mary's High School in Berkeley and will matriculate to Mississippi State University this fall. Courtney led Sorcerer in home runs throughout the summer, with a home run in every event preceding Nationals. Courtney led the team in hitting at Nationals with a 0.462 batting average and a 0.533 on-base percentage.
Congratulations Whitney, Maya, and Courtney, and thanks for being members and leaders of the Sorcerer family!
Sunday, July 20 Sorcerer Gold Mumma wins Independence Day "Boulder" Tournament
With a sequence of 3 consecutive come-from-behind victories, Sorcerer won the prestigious 80-team Louisville Slugger Independence Day Tournament in Boulder, CO in their first attempt. Sorcerer scored 68 runs including 7 homeruns in 12 games. See more.
Sorcerer began the tournament with 4 wins and 2 losses in pool play, earning Sorcerer the second seed in their pool. Sorcerer
recorded victories over the Michigan Finesse (6-2) with a homerun by Kayla White, the Pennsylvania Blazing Angels
(17-0) with a 2nd inning homerun by Kayla White, the New Jersey Inferno (7-1), and the So Cal Explosion (7-4) with a 5th inning homerun by Mississippi State-bound Courtney Moore (extending her streak to 6 consecutive events). Sorcerer suffered
losses to the Oklahoma Jitterbugs (0-1) and the Illinois Sharks (5-6).
On Saturday morning, Sorcerer began single-elimination tournament play,
with a 6-0 victory over the Missouri Renegades led by pitcher Amanda Summerford.
On Saturday evening, Sorcerer faced North Carolina-bound pitcher Constance Orr and the North Carolina Lady Blues who were riding high from just defeating the OC Batbusters. Unbeknownst to Sorcerer, Orr had led her Butler High School (Charlotte, NC) team this year to a #2 national ranking by StudentSportsSoftball, with 22 wins and no losses. Sorcerer rose to the challenge, and defeated the Lady Blues by a score of 2-0.
On Saturday night, Sorcerer faced Arizona-State bound pitcher Dallas Escobedo of the Arizona Hotshots [Qualified]. While her 70+ MPH pitches were impressive, Sorcerer managed to score 5 runs to defeat the Hotshots 5-4.
On Sunday morning, Sorcerer faced Team Florida [Qualified] in the quarterfinal round. Sorcerer quickly leapt ahead and scored 3 runs, punctuated by a 4th inning homerun by Breana Kostreba. But in a disastrous 5th inning, Sorcerer gave up 3 runs to allow Team Florida to tie the score. As time ran out, neither team had scored again, sending the game to an international tie-breaking (ITB) inning. In the bottom of the 8th, with an ITB runner on 2nd base, Stanford-bound Maya Burns blasted a shot into center-field, bringing in the winning run, and advancing Sorcerer to the semi-final round.
Late Sunday morning, Sorcerer faced Notre-Dame bound pitcher Jackie Bowe and the Illinois Beverly Bandits [Qualified] in the semi-final round. The Bandits demonstrated their power at the plate by scoring 3 runs early in the game. But Sorcerer showed true grit, and fought back to tie the game 3-3 on homeruns by Cal-bound Jordan Wallace in both the 2nd and the 4th innings. Sorcerer added another run in the 3rd inning, and 1 more in the 4th, to advance to the championship game.
For the tournament championship, nearly exhausted from 11 games in 5 days, Sorcerer faced Texas A&M-bound pitcher Rebecca Arbino and long time rival and nemesis the Corona Angels coached by Marty Tyson. The Angels scored a run in the first inning.
Sorcerer bats came alive in the 4th inning; a
double by Breana Kostreba brought in Maya Burns. With little production from the starters, but sensing an opportunity, Sorcerer coaches entered Harvard-bound Whitney Shaw to pinch hit. Shaw had been
sidelined after an ugly collision two games earlier that injured her
surgically repaired knee. Despite the pain and with a noticeable limp,
Shaw was ready, and responded to the call with a 3-run blast over the
left-center field fence. [Sadly, Whitney tore her ACL again in the collision, and will undergo immediate surgery.The Sorcerer family wishes Whitney a speedy recovery.]
"Honestly, I was just trying to hit it really hard," Shaw said. "When I got up there I was just like, if there's one thing I can still do it's hit the crap out of the ball. That's all I was really thinking about."
The Angels answered in the bottom of the inning with a 2-run homer of their own. In the next inning, the Angels loaded the bases. With one out, Arbino smashed a line drive down the middle, but with a fantastic catch, Cal-bound Jordan Wallace snared the ball, threw it to second base for the out, and seized the momentum from the Angels.
Sorcerer held the Angels scoreless in the 6th and 7th innings for the 4-3 win and the tournament championship.
Samantha Albanese pitched 11 innings with 4 strikeouts over 4 games. Oregon-bound Jessica Moore pitched 28.5 innings with 31 strikeouts over 9 games. And, Fresno State-bound Hannah Williams pitched 29.5 innings with 19 strikeouts over 8 games.
Congratulations Sorcerer on an exceptional Boulder tournament debut!
Sorcerer Softball Academy offers private hitting, pitching and position play lessons in our modern, well-equipped indoor facility. They are open Monday through Thursday 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Call 925-671-7529 for weekend hours or for all lesson appointments. Many of their instructors have played and coached the game at the highest tiers of competition. Scores of their students have enjoyed success at the club, high school and collegiate levels, with students even having played on national teams. Lessons are private and individual and are priced at $40 for the half-hour.
Clinics for coaches and players at their site are also offered. They can help you reach the top of your game, just as they have done for so many others. Do you believe in magic?
Monday, May 26 Sorcerer Photos Available
You may see photos of the Sorcerer summer escapades on the Flickr group Sorcerer Summer 2008.
Saturday, April 5 Sorcerer Summer 2008 Players Span Great Distances
Players from the Sorcerer Summer 2008 team live across Northern California and Nevada and are headed to top Division I universities across the United States. Click directly on the pins of the map to see who goes where!
