The Peninsula Breakers Softball All-Stars will be going to Midland, Texas, on July 31 to participate in the Amateur Softball Association Finals, softball’s version of the Little League World Series.
“I’m very proud of the way our team has played this season. [I think we] will do very well in Texas and we are looking forward to the opportunity,” said team manager Brian Duran.
The Breakers have posted an impressive 29-8-1 record thus far, and finished third out of 21 teams from Southern California in the State Championships. They defeated Menifee 7-2, Escondido 10-5, West Garden Grove 4-1 and Rancho Pensaquitos 4-1, all District champions.
The Peninsula Breakers of the Peninsula Youth Softball Association are only the second team to appear in the finals in the league’s 26-year history. The first PYSA team competed in 2003.
“I feel great about going to the Nationals. It’s a once in a lifetime experience,” said catcher Jill Duran. “We are very lucky to be playing there,”
“I’m very excited to be going,” added pitcher Danielle Batakis. “It’s going to be very hot there but it’s going to be fun.”
The Breakers success is somewhat of a David and Goliath story considering their 300-girl league has been up against clubs boasting 700 to 800 players.
At a fund-raising dinner for the team, former PYSA player Jenna Joyner (1992-2001) commented on the Breakers expansion into a formidable opponent for the other teams at nationals.
“The league has grown in the past few years. There are more players and more talent now then when I played,” said Jenna Joyner, former PYSA player (1992-2001).
Joyner is currently going into her sophomore year at Dominican University in San Rafael and plays on the softball team.
The 12 players that were selected to play for the Peninsula Breakers are: Danielle Batakis, Melissa Clark, Layle Darosa, Jill Duran, Devin Fitzgerald, Katie McEachern, Ally Moder, Megan O’Beirne, Justine Otsuka, Marissa Reyes, Janessa Virissimo and Auralee Walmer. The team is managed by Duran and his assistants Dan Griffiths and Jorge Reyes.
“We are very proud of our girls,” said parent Cheryl Moder. “It’s been a team effort and the parents have been a great group of individuals who have helped out a lot.”
The Breakers are currently soliciting sponsorship from community organizations, individuals or companies to fund the momentous trip. Interested persons can make a donation to US Bank account number 153457974704 or contact Duran at (619) 226-4115.
“We’ll try our best to bring home the trophy from Texas,” Duran said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Peninsula Breakers Softball All-Stars will be going to Midland, Texas, on July 31 to participate in the Amateur Softball Association Finals, softball’s version of the Little League World Series.“I’m very proud of the way our team has played this season. [I think we] will do very well in Texas and we are looking forward […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Breakers head to finals in Texas","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-296113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}