The Mustangs went into their final at bat in the bottom of the seventh inning trailing Piedmont Hills 6-5 in the championship game. With one out, things started to unravel for the Pirates.

Pioneer's Kyle Burchfield patiently worked a walk. Then the Pirates' pitcher really hit a wild streak as both Derek Clark and Steven Muirhead were hit by pitches to load the bases. Eddie Hsieh worked the count full before he drew a walk to force in the tying run. Then Shaun Souza stepped to the plate.

With the outfield drawn in, Souza watched for a pitch to drive as the count climbed to 3-1. He found what he was looking for and drove it--all the way over the left field fence. Souza clubbed a walk-off grand slam home run, giving Pioneer a 10-6 win and the tournament championship.

Behind the pitching and hitting of Mike Rudolf, Pioneer opened a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Rudolf connected on one of his three singles on the day to drive in a pair of runs. In addition, he got the nod for the start and went four innings on the mound and gave up only one unearned run. Chris Foley took the hill with the Mustangs in a jam in the bottom of the fifth. He fired one pitch to get an inning-ending double play and finished the game to benefit from Souza's fireworks and nail down his first win of the young season.

Andy Wright (2-0), who was a stalwart for Pioneer last season, has put together solid back-to-back starts to contribute to the Mustangs' 6-0 win over Woodside in the opening game of the tourney and the 14-2 win over Mission San Jose in the semifinals. Johnny Carreras got the call for mound duty in the second round match-up against Leigh and was solid as Pioneer pounded the Longhorns 12-0 in five innings.