Vernon Hills Stingers win Rockford tourney
Submitted by Jean Malek
The Vernon Hills Stingers 14U Gold team won the United States Specialty Sports Association State tournament in Rockford recently. They finished the tournament with a 7-1 record and a state championship.
The tournament win was a total team effort, with every girl participating in the championship run. The Stingers team includes Izzy Cirone, Danielle Comitor, Dana Dolinko, Rose Ferolo, Taylor Koenigs, Katie Malek, Emma Mizialko, Halia Parrott, Sami Saliba, Tori Smith, Carly Stern and Molly Thon.
The Stingers finished pool play with a 1-1 record and a No. 2 seed. The start of elimination play is when the Stingers began to roll, knocking off five No. 1 seeds on their way to the state championship.
In the elimination round, the Stingers beat Homewood Flossmoor Force, Arlington Heights Patriots, Plainfield Force and Sterling Stream to get to the semifinal game.
“We knew with the win over Sterling we had guaranteed ourselves at least a third-place finish in state going into Sunday’s games,” Coach Paul Saliba said. “But our girls weren’t satisfied with that, they wanted to win it all.”
On the final morning, the Stingers faced Northwest Vikings in the semifinal. The Stingers jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. It was still 1-0 in the top of the third when the Stingers scored six runs on a two-out rally.
The Vikings weren’t done; they came back with five runs of their own in the bottom of the third to make the score 7-5. The Stingers added an insurance run in the top of the fourth to push the lead to three with a score of 8-5. That was the final as the Stingers advanced to the championship game.
The championship game was a rematch with the Roselle Rockers, the only team to beat the Stingers in the tournament. The Stingers started out slow as the Rockers built a 6-run lead after three innings.
But the fourth inning was all Stingers as they scored seven runs mostly on base hits. This offensive burst propelled the Stingers to a 7-6 lead and deflated the Rockers. The Stingers scored four more runs in the top of the fifth to go up 11-6. The Rockers were held to only one more late run in the bottom of the seventh. Final score was 11-7 and the Stingers had a state championship.
The Stingers are coached by Paul Saliba, Mitch Stern, Al Dolinko, and Jeff Mizialko. The Stingers have earned a 26-6-1 record in tournament games so far this season. Next up for the Stingers is the Candotti Memorial Tournament July 20-22. Then it will be on to USSSA Nationals in Tulsa, OK.
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