Tampa Mustangs complete championship comeback

Our time. 

That had been the Tampa Mustangs 16U softball team’s motto all season long. 

After finishing as the national runner-up each of the past two seasons, the Mustangs believed this season would be different. 

After dropping their first game 1-0, the Lakewood Ranch-based Mustangs won 12 straight games to capture the 16U Premier Girls Fastpitch National Softball Championship Aug. 1 through Aug. 8, in Huntington Beach, Calif., and complete an improbable comeback. 

The Mustangs posted six shutouts in bracket play, including a 1-0 victory over the Beverly Bandits in the title game. Braden River’s Kinsey Goelz drove in the lone run of the game. The hit brought in Lakewood Ranch’s Denali Schappacher, who singled. 

Other area championship players include: Bethaney Keen, Myah Moy and Kylie Toler of Braden River and Maddie Biggs, Kyra Klarkowski and Kaylee Misiti of Lakewood Ranch