Submitted photo
ORANGE BEACH, ALA. – A pair of Mount Ida girls helped their fastpitch softball team, Wildfire², finish in the top 10 in the USSSA 12UC National Championship held July 20-26 at Orange Beach, Ala.
Mesa Miller and Isabella Thew, both of Mount Ida, are members of Wildfire², a fastpitch softball team based in Nashville.
The girls qualified for the national championship with runners-up finishes in the Shelby Howard Memorial Tournament and the Drew Walston Classic, and a third place finish in the Arkansas USSSA C State tournament.
Wildfire² finished 4-3 in the national championship held at Orange Beach, Ala., finishing ninth out of 31 teams.
They defeated the Lady Patriots of Alexander City, Ala. And TKO 03’ of Fairhope, Ala. by a margin of 4-3 in each game.
Their largest margin of victory was an 8-0 shutout over D3 from Columbia, Tenn. They also logged a 2-0 shutout over Xpress from Lincoln, Ala.
Their three losses were to Kraze from Florence, Ala. (8-3), Southern Fury from Mobile, Ala. (6-0) and Tupelo Express 12U from Tupelo, Miss. (2-0)
Members of Wildfire² also competed in a series of skills competitions with members of the team winning two of the four competitions.
Isabella Thew of Mount Ida, Adalyn Dunn and Aly Dixon of Nashville and Brooklyn Reed of Spring Hill won the around the horn competition. The event is a timed event which starts with the catcher. The clock starts when the catcher throws the ball to the third baseman who then throws to the shortstop and then on to the first baseman, who fires the ball back to the catcher to stop the clock. The quartet of Wildfire² players won the competition with a time of 6.19 seconds.
Teammates Aly Dixon and Adalyn Dunn, both from Nashville, tied for the win in the home run derby.
Shane Rothenburger is the head coach for Wildfire².
Team members include: Mesa Miller (Mount Ida), Isabella Thew (Mount Ida), Tiny Dixon (Nashville), Aly Dixon (Nashville), Adalyn Dunn (Nashville), Jayda Bryan (Nashville), Hannah Davis (Amity), Lexi Diggs (Kirby), Brooklyn Reed (Spring Hill), Madison Morton (Stamps), and Leslie Goodner (Stamps).
