When a tournament moves into bracket play, it's all about taking the next step.
At the ASA/USA Girls' Class A 16-Under Fast Pitch National Tournament, a San Diego-area team indicated that it might be about getting past The Next Level.
The Next Level, the Southern California ASA champions, met the Gainesville (Fla.) Gold in the middle of the country at Bee Creek Park. Delanie Gourley, a lefty from the left coast, was the difference. She struck out eight in a 6-0 victory that sends her team into a Thursday night game against Tennessee's Mustang 94 Fastpitch.
"It was kind of hard getting going," said Gourley, who got her team out of a first-inning bases-loaded jam with two strikeouts. "The mound was a little muddy, but you have to adjust."
She did it quite well, but her coach knows she can be better.
"As good as she was, she wasn't pitching great today," The Next Level coach Jerry Delamater said. "There's a lot of people looking at her. A lot of people want that kid. She's going to be good."
The winners' bracket was cut to 64 teams Wednesday on a day when 99 games were played at 15 parks in Bryan and College Station.
Gourley fanned Taylor King and Annie Seader to end a first-inning threat by the Gold, which opened the game with the first of Kristi Merritt's two singles. The Gainesville team had a hit in each of the first four innings to keep the pressure on.
"I had a couple [of pitches] that I missed, but I came back and our defense was great," said Gourley, whose defense closed the game with a double play. "The California teams really like to beat teams from Florida."
Shortstop Monica Downey opened the scoring with an infield single and she came around on Jaylene Ignacio's single to right.
The Gold's starter, Tinsley Smith, kept her team within a run until the fourth, getting help from a double play in the third inning.
"I've told this team if we score three runs with our pitching, we're going to win 90 percent of our games," Delamater said.
It took four innings to get there. Maritza Portillo's two-out single plated Gourley, and Portillo scored on a double by Downey. Leadoff hitter Downey was 3 for 3 with a sacrifice and two doubles.
Portillo singled and scored on a wild pitch and The Next Level completed its climb to the next level with singles from Ignacio and Noelle Johnson. Both eventually scored on errors.
"We knew coming into this game that it was going to be a challenge," Gold coach Kathy Seader said. "We actually faced this team in nationals in Midland two years ago. We knew what we were going against and knew it was going to be tough."
The Gold defeated the only team from Bryan-College Station in the 160-team field, the Texas Starz, 12-3, in an early morning game. The Starz, winless in three games, played another game late Wednesday.
A journey through the losers' bracket probably seems less daunting for a Gainesville Gold team that won seven games on a Sunday in a qualifying tournament, but the Gold is not at full strength. Cleanup hitter Ashley Johnson is out with a broken thumb.
"We are short a bat in the lineup and it does hurt a little bit," Seader said. "It doesn't quite put us as deep as we normally can go, and we've only got 10 players."
The Gold had one advantage over the winners -- a shorter trip to the national tournament.
"We drove in 14 hours from Florida and it wasn't a bad drive," said Seader.