Box Score TURLOCK, CA –The Swords finished a historic Tournament of Champions as Champions of the Bronze Bracket, defeating the Yellowjackets of MSU Billings by a score of 2-1 in the Swords final contest at The Tournament of Champions.
At different times in the Tournament of Champions, different Silverswords stepped up to lead Chaminade to wins. In the championship game of the Bronze Bracket, that title would have to go to Silversword senior catcher, Anuhea Yamaguchi (Ewa Beach, CA/Campbell). Yamaguchi singled in a run in the first inning and added a solo homerun in the fourth inning to score all the runs CUH would need in a 2-1 victory.
Freshman
Brett Aspel (Redondo Beach, CA/Redondo Union) earned the win for Chaminade, going all seven innings in the victory. Aspel allowed only one run on three hits while striking out three on the game.
Chaminade had four hits while holding the Yellowjackets to three hits on the contest. CUH finished the tournament, hosted by Cal State Stanislaus, with five wins and only two losses. The Swords offense was impressive throughout the tournament, finishing with 59 hits as a group. Junior shortstop
Rayna Strom-Okimoto (Aiea, HI/Aiea) proved to be one of the better hitters in the tournament, finishing with ten hits, four doubles, a .526 batting average and a .737 slugging percentage, earning a spot on Tournament of Champions presented by Mizuno
All Tournament Team.
Coach Yamaguchi commented on the game and the tournament: “This is the farthest we have gone in the Tournament of Champions that I can remember. To get into the Bronze bracket was great. To come out and win it means a lot. We really appreciate all the positive comments from other teams and coaches. There were very good teams that finished below us. I'm really proud of the team; our success was a total team effort. ”
Chaminade is back in PacWest conference action on April 3rd against Dixie State in St. George, UT. First pitch is set for 12:00 PM MT.
The Swords move to 13-18, 7-11 PWC with the win, while MSU-Billings falls to 24-8 in defeat.
