12U Premier National Champions

Sunday was the conclusion of the 2026 PGF Nationals and the action and results of each of the three was outstanding.

We are recapping the National Championship games in a three-part series covering each of the title games that was played on Sunday at Deanna Manning Stadium in Bill Barber Park, Irvine, Calif.

Today, we look at the middle game of the day, which featured two teams from the North and South—Northern and Southern California that is!

12U Premier Championship

Lady Magic – Munoz 5, Athletics Mercado – Greg 3

The 2026 PGF 12U Premier Nationals featured a battle of two of the most prestigious club softball programs in the county and had another interesting angle to it: an interstate element as the Lady Magic are from NorCal and the Athletics Mercado org is based in SoCal.

It was a travel ball match-up for supremacy of the Golden State—at least in this young age division—and, not surprisingly, the championship game was an exciting one and went down to the final play of the 7th inning before the Lady Magic 12U team coached by husband/wife tandem Ernie and Lindsey took home the PGF championship trophy by a final score 5-3.

A view from the top of Danna Manning Stadium as the 12U Premier Championship began.

Early Lead

After a scoreless first inning, the Magic exploded for four runs in the top of the second and looked to be close to blowing the game open.

Addison Faubion, the DP for the Lady Magic, lined a shot down the right field line for a standup double to lead off the inning and then outfielder Ari Verasco singled between short and third to advance Faubion to third. Verasco then took second, narrowly beating the throw by catcher JoJo Payer of the A's.

Maddie Mendez hit a fly ball single to left field that brought in Faubion to make the score 1-0 while Verasco moved to third, all with no outs.

Designed runner Charlie Strikland stole second and third baseman Gianna Washington walked to load the bases before a fielder's choice to shortstop and the force out throw to home put the first out on the board.

Leadoff hitter Jaelyn Arnold walked to bring home Strickland for the second run, leading to a pitching change as Lafferty exited and Madison Felix was brought in to pitch for the A's.

She got a groundout for the second out, but shortstop Belle Brown singled to right center to bring home two more runs to double the lead to 4-0 after one and a half innings.

Sophia Lafferty pitches in the 12U Premier Championship for the Athletics Mercado – Greg team.

Adding On

In the top of the third, the Magic tacked on another run when, with two outs, Verasco fouled off several pitches before crushing a ball to the right field fence that resulted in a triple.

Maddie Mendez grounded to shortstop and it looked like the inning would be over, but the throw was errant and went into the dugout to bring in the fifth run, which is how the inning ended.

Athletics Rally

Down by five entering the bottom of the third, the Athletics could've checked out, but it was quite the opposite as Greg Borzilleri's team turned it up a notch to close the game to 5-3—all with two outs.

With one out in the bottom of the third, outfielder Mia Landeros doubled and, after the second out of the inning, it looked like the Lady Magic would exit the inning unscathed.

However, catcher and clean-up hitter JoJo Poyer doubled to bring Landeros across for the first run of the game for the Athletics and then came around to score when shortstop Abby Sanchez singled to left.

During the play, the Lady Magic caught a break when designated runner Charlie Strickland was trapped between third and home, but the throw to the plate was late and Strickland scored to make it a 5-2 lead.

Outfielder Jasmine Shaw singled to bring home Sanchez and quickly the lead was cut to 5-3 and the Athletics were back in the game.

Pitcher Sammie Bender went the distance to get the win for the Lady Magic.

Bender Shuts the Door

However, there would be no more scoring as Lady Magic starter Sammie Bender would get out of potential scoring situations in the fifth inning, when a one-out Koko Balderama single was erased by a 6-4-3 double play, and in the sixth inning when shortstop Abby Sanchez led off the inning with a single but was thrown out at second trying to stretch it to a double.

Drama in the 7th

Then, in the 7th inning, the game got really interesting.

The Lady Magic – Munoz loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the inning and looked to pad the lead, but a fly out to shallow center and an accurate throw to home plate during an intentional run-down quickly rang up two outs.

The A's intentionally walked a batter to again load the bases before pitcher KK Karpinski, on a 3-2 count, got a huge called strike to end the top of the inning with the Athletics unscathed.

The question going into the bottom of the 7th was, would the missed opportunity in the top of the inning—Lady Magic loaded the bases with no outs but didn't score—come back to hurt them?

Trailing by two in the bottom of the 7th, the final stanza provided major drama for the rest of the inning.

After the first out was recorded, the key play of the game happened and was quickly challenged to create heightened tension as the home umpire reviewed the call.

Athletics second baseman Abiline Ballejos hit a come-backer to the mound that bounced away from Bender towards first base. She went after the ball rolling away from her and, at the last second, flipped the ball with her glove to first baseman Jada Johnson.

Ballejos sprinted down the line and, initially, the call was "safe," but Lady Magic Co-Head Coach Ernie Munoz challenged the call and after a few tense minutes for both sides waiting for the decision, it came down from the booth: "overturned."

That call was huge, because it made for out No. 2, but the A's weren't done yet, putting a runner on base and bringing the tying run to the plate.

Bender faced the A's two-hole hitter and, after fouling off several pitches, a groundout to short was fielded and thrown to first for the final out—securing the 2026 PGF 12U Premier National Championship for the Lady Magic – Munoz.