“Goodbye” the toughest part for Firecrackers Brashear as PGF run ends

At the end of Thursday’s action, it seemed that the Firecrackers Brashear were a team of destiny.

Shaylee Ackerman’s two-run home run in the sixth inning of the Firecrackers’ 2-1 victory over the EC Bullets added another notch to the belt that was a team of comeback kids.

The magic seemed to run out on Thursday. Perhaps the Firecrackers had fired their last bullet of the tournament, but the same team did not take the field on Friday.

While they had been able to ride an opportunistic offense to four consecutive wins in the main draw of the 16U Premier division at the Premier Girls Fastpitch Nationals, the bats finally fell silent.

Through three games, the Firecrackers were averaging over nine runs per contest. In their last three games of PGF, Brashear’s team pushed across a total of five runs.

A 6-1 loss to the Beverly Bandits Tyrell sent the Firecrackers to the loser’s bracket on Friday morning. Without experiencing defeat earlier in the tournament, it was tough task to answer, especially against a familiar foe.

The SoCal Athletics Briggs were riding the momentum of an emotional 7-6 victory over the EC Bullets. They had escaped a final-inning jam, stranding the tying and winning runs in scoring position on a line-out double play facilitated by center-fielder Ivana Perez.

Briggs’ team crossed the walkway at the Huntington Beach Sports Complex and put their stuff in the dugout at Field 3. As if the exciting win was not enough to get the Athletics pumped for the game, they now had a chance to exact revenge on the team that put them in the loser’s bracket on the first day of the tournament.

Riding an eight-game winning streak into the rematch, the Athletics took care of business to the tune of a 6-2 win over the Firecrackers.

“You lose that first game in PGF, you’re going to have long days,” Athletics coach Ken Briggs said. “The girls are just going with it. Every day is like a friendly for us. We’re just going to have fun and throw the cards down. We’ve thrown them down thus far.”

The key moment came in the third, when pinch-hitter Sarah Taylor stepped into the box with a runner on in a 2-2 game. She stared at the first, expecting to see a similar offering following the strike.

Taylor got what she was looking for. She opened up the hips early and cracked a no-doubter of a home run against the wind to left field.

“Before I went up to bat, (our coach) told us, ‘We have to hit ground balls, base hits, not home runs because the wind has been so strong,’” Taylor, a Mercer commit said. “I was trying to hit a base hit, but it ended up being a home run.”

Marissa Burk went two for three with two RBIs for the Athletics. Devyn Netz earned the complete-game win, surrendering two runs on six hits while striking out three.

All of the offensive production by the Firecrackers came in the first. Nyomi Jones led off with a walk. Megan Delgadillo sacrificed her to second, and Ackerman roped a double inside the bag at third to tie the score, 1-1.

Kelly Ryono followed with a single through the left side of the infield. When she broke for second, Athletics catcher Audrey Sellers threw to second. Ryono stopped before reaching the base, allowing Ackerman to score on a double steal.

Neither team authored its best defensive performance in the elimination game. Infield errors led to unearned runs for the Athletics in the first and second innings.

The Athletics had four errors as a team, but the Firecrackers mustered just six hits and left eight runners on base.

Alycia Flores had two hits for the Firecrackers. Carli Kloss, Delgadillo, Ackerman, and Ryono each had one.

“To be able to take fifth and know that you still beat four of the teams in the top 10, it’s hard to say that it wasn’t a great week,” Firecrackers coach Sean Brashear said. “It’s just that when you have a bigger dream, you’re always a little bit disappointed.”

Failing to reach Saturday’s national championship game was not the toughest part. That claim still belongs to the long goodbyes at season’s end.

“They genuinely love each other and like to be around each other,” Brashear added. “I know this part is the hardest part because they know that they’re never going to be assembled like this again.”

Andrew.Turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner