Five Cities 14U Screaming Eagles of Loomis win NorCal title

The Five Cities 14U Screaming Eagles softball team from Loomis won the NorCal All-Stars Invitational championship in Rancho Cordova on Sunday, defeating the Rocklin ThunderCats 14-0 in five innings to cap a 6-0 tournament run. Five Cities outsourced its opponents 71-18 across six games. In Sunday's championship, the Screaming Eagles were led by a dominant performance by AnaMarin Hemmings, who pitched a one-hitter, walked one and struck out two. "AnaMarin was our pitcher that we won with at nationals last year. She's absolutely nails," Five Cities coach Harry Jones said. "Nothing makes her nervous. That girl is probably one of the best pitchers in the area. Hands down." Paige Denniston went 2 for 2 with a home run, double and four RBIs in the champioinship. "She has hit some monstrous home runs for us against teams that had us on the ropes and she comes in and just smashes balls," Jones saidof Denniston. "I'm talking over the fence, inside-the-park home runs. It doesn't matter, she just changes the whole dynamic of the game for us and she's done it time after time all season." Also, Hemmings had three RBIs and Lexi Jones two. Jones leads the Screaming Eagles with a .594 batting average this season and is one of five on the team hitting at least .500. Five Cities now shifts its focus to the USA Softball Western Nationals from July 24-30 between Lincoln and Roseville. The Screaming Eagles are the defending champions at 14U and are gunning for a repeat, although they return just three players. "It's gonna be tough to repeat. The team we had last year was phenomenal and this team we have this year is really, really, really good," Jones said. "We're gonna have to catch a couple breaks and get a little bit of help from some other teams, but I think they have a shot, to be honest with you. We can't make many mistakes and if we can do that, we have a really good shot." The Western Nationals field is littered with teams from across the West Coast and fortunately for Five Cities, there are many familiar faces in the crowd. "With a lot of the local teams, I'm not really worried since we play them so much and know what to expect. We pretty much take care of business when we play them" Jones said. "The Pocket Aces from Sacramento always give us a tough game, and the teams from Central and Southern California will be a challenge." The brackets have not been finalized. There are 27 teams committed to the tournament. Said Jones, "We are really looking forward to it. There are going to be a lot of great teams here and some great competition."