LOCAL GIRLS WIN NATIONAL TITLE

BENTON -- After playing from behind all day in the championship round of the 1997 Girls Babe Ruth Softball National Tournament, the under-12 Heartland Nationals All-Stars finally put their bats to work Sunday afternoon.

The Nationals -- made up of fast-pitch softball players from New Hamburg, Delta, Kelso and Oran -- scored 12 runs in their final four at-bats to rally for a 13-7 national-championship win over Jax Beach, Fla.

The national championship was the first ever for the under-12 team and first for the local teams since 1992 when the 13-to-15-year-olds won nationals.

"This is a lot of hard work ending with a good accomplishment," said Heartland manager Tom Essner. "We started this team about a month ago and the girls have played hard since we started. It all paid off."

Earlier in the morning, Jax Beach forced a second championship game in the double-elimination tourney by holding off a late Nationals rally for a 6-5 victory. In the second game, the Florida team jumped ahead after two innings 5-1, causing concern for the local squad.

"I wasn't really concerned until they were up 5-1," Essner said. "I was afraid we might get down, but we kept our heads in the game."

And the Heartland All-Stars also got their bats involved. The Nationals batted around in both the third and fourth innings to take control.

Dana Essner's two-out, bases-loaded single in the third inning scored two runs to tie the score 5-5. Essner, who earned the win on the mound in the final game and had three hits, was named Most Valuable Player of the under-12 bracket. She also collected two other wins during the tourney as Heartland finished 4-1.

After Jax Beach (3-2) scored an unearned run to go ahead 6-5, Heartland erupted for five hits and four runs to go back on top for good. Megan Ressel put the local team ahead with an RBI single and Andrea Kluesner followed with a two-run single to make the score 9-6.

Jax Beach scored their final run in the fifth, but the Nationals answered in the bottom of the inning. Allison Johnson led off with a double and scored on a groundout by Teresa Hodges to make the score 10-7.

Heartland put the game away with three runs in the sixth inning without a hit. Ramona Blankenship pitched two scoreless innings to close out the championship. Besides Essner's three hits, Rebecca Below and Ressel had two hits in Heartland's 10-hit attack.

In the morning loss, Heartland rallied from a 6-0 deficit before falling. Two runs in the fifth and three more in the bottom of the seventh made things exciting. But with runners on third and first, Heartland was unable to push across the tying run.

"Our bats sort of quit and we had a bad inning on defense," said Essner of the loss. "Those things happen, but we kept our heads in there and kept bopping away."

Members of the under-12 national-champion Heartland Nationals are: MVP-Dana Essner, Allison Johnson, Ashley Kern, Andrea Kluesner, Christy Kluesner, Kelly Essner, Ashley Reinagel, Ramona Blankenship, Megan Russell, Rebecca Below, Rebecca Cook, Monica Senciboy, Teresa Hodges and Laura Weissmueller. Tom Essner managed the team with help from coaches Doug Johnson and Randy Kern.

* In the 16-18-year-old bracket Saturday night, the local Bootheel Bandits fell to the Wisconsin Rapids All-Stars 1-0 in the championship final.

The Bandits battled through the loser's bracket to reach the final, recording a 3-2 mark in the tourney. Wisconsin went undefeated with a 4-0 record.

* The 13-15-year-old title went to the Stamford All-Stars from Connecticut. They beat Blue Ridge, Va., 2-1 and 7-5 Sunday.