July 5, 2025
By Jack Carlough
LOVELAND, Colo. — Now 7-0 in the Colorado Sparkler Juniors 14U Gold tournament, Impact Gold Gunz has earned the right to compete on championship Sunday.
The Corpus Christi, Texas-based club punched its ticket to the Gold championship bracket thanks to a dominant 9-0 win over Premier National Fastpitch Till on Saturday afternoon at the Barnes Complex in Loveland. Sela Perez delivered four shutout innings in the circle, and head coach Rich Gunz’s small-ball offense was once again in peak form.
“The girls came here to play,” Gunz said. “There's something special about this team. It's hard to keep a team together in today's select world. There's people moving, there's players that want to be on a winning team and whatnot, but the core of these girls have stuck together.”
Gunz was particularly of his starting pitcher Perez, who was injured in last year’s Colorado Sparkler Juniors but fought her way back through rehab and physical therapy to pitch this summer. The right-handed Perez struck out four and allowed only one hit — a second-inning double by Baylee Neal — against a tough Premier National Fastpitch team.
“It means so much, just putting in all the work to get here again and being able to throw and get to Sunday,” Perez said.
With the help of three Premier National Fastpitch defensive miscues, Impact Gold got on the board early with two runs in the second inning. Second baseman Cyena De Leon and courtesy runner Kiki Smith each scored on separate bunts that led to throwing errors.
Impact Gold then broke things open with a seven-run third inning, highlighted by RBI singles from Perez and De Leon. Right fielder Avery Sauceda helped ignite the big inning with a single and a stolen base.
“Right now we're having a lot of fun,” said Sauceda, who singled and stole second in the first inning as well. “It's so much talking and so much energy around the field. We’re having a lot of fun and playing a lot of softball together. It's like family.”
Impact Gold will return to Barnes on Sunday, needing four wins to secure the Colorado Sparkler Junior 14U Gold championship. Gunz’s group will face the second-place team from Gold H in the championship bracket first round at 8 a.m.
“I'm really excited. We've never had this opportunity at all,” Sauceda said. “There's a lot of good teams out here, and we've beaten a lot of good teams.”
En route to reaching the Gold A championship game, Impact Gold beat NW Vandals Holden (14-9) and American Thunder STX (7-0) on Friday during the first two rounds. Premier Fastpitch National got past St. Louis Chaos Etling/Wert (11-2) and Arizona Storm Carroll/Campbell (7-1).
Premier Fastpitch can still reach the Gold championship bracket with another win over St. Louis Chaos Etling/Wert on Saturday at 4 p.m.