Viera, FL (June 23, 2021)- Tonight was a special night for USSSA Pride players at Space Coast Stadium as it was their Father/Daughter themed game where the players own fathers threw out the first pitch and were in the stands in a poignant gesture to their commitment to their daughters fastpitch careers. USSSA CEO, Donny Dedonatis, also joined in tonight’s festivities and threw out the first pitch with his daughter, Ashtyn. The large crowd also featured athletes taking part in the USSSA Space Coast Cup and participants of the USSSA Pride camp earlier in the day.
Odicci Alexander made her second big league start tonight in front of over two thousand fans. Alexander was stellar in her second start getting four backwards K’s in her first two innings. Alexander made it through the third quickly but ran into a little trouble in the fourth, letting up a solo homerun to Kaleigh Rafter. This was followed by a walk (Erika Polidori) and a double by Jennifer Salling both scoring in the top of the fourth. That’s all the runs Alexander would allow pitching the entire game striking out 8 batters and letting up 4 hits on 3 walks.
The Pride were on the board first in tonight’s game with Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza’s opposite field homerun, making it her first professional homerun in her career. After going down two in the top of the fourth the Pride threatened in the bottom with Jessie Warren singling then stealing a base but couldn’t advance her home. The Pride’s next chance was in the bottom of the seventh. Shelby Pendley homered to deep left to lead off the inning cutting Team Canada’s lead by 1. Sam Show singled through the right side but were unable to get her across the plate to tie the game- resulting in an unfortunate loss for the Pride.
Join us tonight, June 24th as your USSSA Pride and Team Canada play game two of their four game series at Space Coast Stadium with first pitch at 7:05 pm. Tickets to the game can be found here. If you cannot join us at the park, come watch us on USSSALive.