WPCNR PRESS BOX. July 14, 2004: The National Pro Fastpitch West All-Stars pushed across a run in the seventh inning to beat the Eastern Stars, 1-0, in Oklahoma City this evening when Cheryl Bolding hit a sacrifice fly off Juggernaut pitcher Kaci Clark to leftfield with runners on second and third and one out. Nicole Trimboli's throw from left field was slightly up the line, allowing Lisha Ribellia of the Arizona Heat to slide around Akron catcher Jen Poore to sweep across the plate with the gamer. Peaches James pitching three innings of relief of teammate Christa Williams was the winning pitcher as the East Stars only managed two hits of the Thunder duo.

The National Pro Fastpitch league returns to regular season action Thursday with the NY-NJ Juggernaut meeting the Akron Racers for first place in the East in Akron.

Iyhia McMichael of the Akron Racers and Kellie Wilkerson of the Juggernaut each made spectacular catches to rob West players of hits. Leigh Ann Ellis, Jocelyn Forest of the New England Riptide pitched 2  innings each for the East with Kaci Clark coming on in the 5th.

The winning rally began in the seventh of Kaci Clark when Nancy Evans of the Arizona Heat singled up the middle. On a 3-2 count, Clark walked the Thunder's Claire Burnam. A passed ball that eluded Jen Poore, Racer catcher by just a little bit enabled Ribellia, running for Evans to move up to third, setting it up for Cheryl Bolding who lofted a Kaci pitch into left to Trimboli for the winning run. Trimboli made a great diving, sliding catch to end the inning.

Peaches James the former Nebraska star and Texas Thunder Acette,  retired the East in order in the bottom of the seventh to get the win, and Nancy Evans (not James, as previously reported) was named Most Valuable Player.

Two New Teams Announced on the Internet NetCast.

During the netcast on Pro Sports Radio, it was announced that the National Pro Fastpitch league had added two new teams for 2005, in Chicago and Omaha, Nebraska, and Aaron Moore, the sportscaster introduced and interviewed the new owners of the two baby franchises.

The new owner of the Omaha franchise is Don Berg, who plans for his team to play out of Creighton University, and has hired Sharon Drysdale to Manage the team.

The Chicago owner introduced is Bill Conroy, who plans to finance and market his team by a cooperative fund-raising effort with fastpitch softball clubs in the Ilinois area.