The Easton Invite was held July 10-13 in Orland Park, IL (all rankings are Line Drive Hot 50 Club National Rankings):

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NEBRASKA GOLD NATIONAL-SINGLETON 3, BEVERLY BANDITS PREMIER-CONROY 1

West Texas A&M-bound RF Brooke Janning had an RBI double as Nebraska Gold National-Singleton 18U rallied for two runs in the bottom of the 5th inning to upset #11 Beverly Bandits Premier-Conory 18U, 3-1, in the championship game of the Easton Invite on Sunday at Orland Park, IL.

The field of teams at the Easton Invite features teams from all age groups in the same bracket.

“Winning this tournament means so much not just for our team, but for our organization,” Janning said. “I love being able to represent Nebraska Gold while playing some of the best teams!”

Nebraska-bound LHP Alexis Jensen earned the victory for Nebraska Gold. The left-hander allowed two hits and one run over six innings while striking out eight and walking two.

Janning went 2 for 3 with two RBIs to lead Nebraska Gold’s offense in the final.

Cornell-bound IF/OF Tarisa Frans hit .467 for the week and Jensen hit .412 to lead Nebraska Gold. Northern Colorado-bound 3B/1B/SS Hayden Nelson had three HRs and seven RBIs for the tournament.

Jensen, Janning and Northern Colorado-bound P/1B Ellyse Hydock led the pitching staff all week, allowing 8 runs total and striking out 82 in seven games played.

“Winning this means a lot to this team and Nebraska Gold as a whole,” Nebraska Gold coach Beth Singleton said. “Meeting up with our (Nebraska) Gold 16s in the semis just shows how good Nebraska softball is. (We’re) coming off (a) 3rd-place (finish) in IDT. We started out sluggish in pool play, but (our) toughness and resiliency have been the strength of this team and we were a bit short-handed only traveling 12 this week. I was proud of the grit they showed to get it done.”

Nebraska Gold-Singleton 18U defeated #43 Rock Gold-Garvey 18U, 7-0, Intensity-KOD 16U, 3-2, #20 Illinois Chill Gold 18U, 1-0, #43 Nebraska Gold National-Boyer 16U (via forfeit) and Beverly Bandits Premier-Conroy, 3-1, in bracket games.

Beverly Bandits Premier-Conroy 18U defeated #3 Beverly Bandits Premier-Chow 14U, 11-3, #37 Beverly Bandits Premier-Stone 18U, 2-0, New Lenox Lightning 18U, 14-0, #32 Select Fastpitch-Jones/Byrn 18U, 9-6, and lost to Nebraska Gold-Singleton 18U, 3-1, in bracket games.

— Carlos Arias, Line Drive Media (Follow Carlos on Twitter @los_stuff)