Taco Bell takes the whole enchilada

By ROB NUNLEY / Sports Editor for the Southern Standard (McMinnville, Tenn.)

Taco Bell entered the championship tournament in the 9- and 10-year-old girls machine pitch tournament as the second-place team, but left the field with the title after downing Mullican Tool and Manufacturing Thursday night.

After suffering an upset to fifth-place Smarty Pants Daycare on the final night of the regular season, Taco Bell had to win four games to take the tourney crown, including a second-round matchup with Mullican.

While Toye Majors and Sarah Colangione homered for the eventual tournament champs, it was still not enough as they closed their regular season with a 13-8 loss to Smarty Pants. Other action from the final night of regular-season action saw Mullican Tool down Hall’s Backhoe 7-6 — despite a home run from Hall’s Laura Beth McKinley, and Smarty Pants roll to a 20-5 win over Sundrop thanks to homers from Olivia Majors and Ashley Ashburn.

Hall’s Backhoe opened first-round tournament action with a 15-7 win over Smarty Pants, and Mullican Tool topped Love-Cantrell and Cope 15-8. Emily Crawford homered for Mullican, while Whitney Justice had a home run for Love-Cantrell.

In other first-round action, Sarah Jacobs and Kathryn Burnett homered to help Taco Bell to a 16-5 win over Sundrop.

The second-round began with a nail-biter, as Hall’s Backhoe topped first-seeded Tammy’s Little Tykes 4-3. Other second round games saw Taco Bell roll over Mullican Tool 12-3, while Love-Cantrell and Cope downed Sundrop to open play in the losers’ bracket. Whitney Justice connected for a grand slam to help Love-Cantrell’s cause.

Justice came through again in her team’s next game, as she hit a pair of home runs to propel Love-Cantrell to a 10-6 win over Tammy’s Little Tykes. Lauren Wilkinson homered for Tammy’s.

In Monday night’s winners’ bracket finals, Taco Bell blanked Hall’s Backhoe 5-0, earning a spot in the championship against the survivor of the losers’ bracket.

Mullican proved to be that survivor, as they topped Love-Cantrell and Cope 8-7, then took a 13-6 win over Hall’s on Thursday night. The pressure of having to win back-to-back games wore on the squad from Mullican Tool, however, as a Sarah Colangione homer helped Taco Bell take the title with an 11-5 victory.