July 7, 2025
By Courtney Oakes
The Athletics Mercado Tidd 2010 team more than made the most of its trip to Colorado.
The Southern California-based program started the visit with a undefeated run to the championship in the Triple Crown P5 Patriot Games and a little over a week later, walked off with a second crown after its victory in the 14U National Power Pool championship game of the Colorado 4th of July tournament Sunday afternoon at the Aurora Sports Park.
Kendra Nelson’s two-run single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth inning finished off a 13-5 victory for Athletics Mercado Tidd over Impact National Gold Holmes that ended just before a lightning warning descended on the complex.
“This group is special and we have very high standards,” Athletics Mercado Tidd coach Andy Iwai said. “They won the P5 and won the Power Pool, which might have never happened before. They are a special group and they all work super hard, so this is the fruits of their labor.”
The entire trip to Colorado saw Athletics Mercado Tidd finish 7-0 at the P5 Patriot Games in Fort Collins, then go on a 9-1 binge in the Power Pool play at the Colorado 4th of July Tournament.
The only loss in the marathon 16-1 run came by one run to the Atlanta Vipers Gold Lynch team on July 2 and Athletics Mercado Tidd got payback Sunday with a 6-4 victory over the previously undefeated Vipers in the semifinals before a thorough victory in the championship game.
“We started the P5 10 days ago and 10 days later, we won the Power Pool, so it’s been a grinding week,” Iwai said.
Even with all those games played in a short span, there was no stopping Athletics Mercado Tidd in the final as it scored in all five at-bats with a lineup that hit top to bottom.
Sophia Hernandez whacked a solo home run in the second inning to get the offensive festivities underway for her team — which piled up 35 runs in three games on the final day — while it added two more in the second inning on Laney Sweeney’s RBI double and a run-scoring infield groundout by Hailey Huerta.
The lead jumped to 5-1 in the third inning when Nia Talataina — whose strong defensive play at third base helped starting pitcher Destinee Herrera toss four scoreless innings before Kaylynn Lowman finished the contest — hammered a two-run home run over the center field fence.
“It felt amazing,” Talataina said. “I always go back and forth with my older sister Sina (who is committed to Arizona) to see who can hit the most home runs. To do it in the championship game is amazing and now I’m ahead.”
Athletics Mercado Tidd played smaller ball in the fourth inning when it sent 10 hitters to the plate and six of them scored, as Talataina knocked in two runs with an infield single off the glove of Impact shortstop Trinity Hargrett after Nelson had drive in two more runs with a bases loaded single. Pinch hitter Maddy Solis also drove in a run in the binge.
Despite some early opportunities — including two runners in scoring position with one out in the second inning after a perfect sacrifice bunt by Kylie Rains — the Impact couldn’t get on the scoreboard until the third inning when Hargrett reached on an infield single, used her speed to get around the bases and later came home on a passed ball.
The Impact scored four times in the fifth with the help of some defensive miscues as Paisley Wright knocked in a pair of runs and Holmes also picked up an RBI, but Athletics Mercado Tidd responded immediately in the bottom of the frame with back-to-back hits by Jasmine Estrada and Hailey Huerta, who both came home on Nelson’s game-ending base hit to left field.
“It feels good,” said Nelson, who was 3-for-4 with four RBI in the contest and was one of five players on her team to score two runs.
“When our bats are on, we’re hot,” she added. “This is an amazing team to play with. I loved playing in this tournament, it was a lot of fun. The teams we played were good, but we were just on.”
