Early risers this past Pride Sunday had to look no further than La Mesa for the best entertainment in town, as the championship game of the first ever West Coast Women’s Baseball Classic was held at 10:00 a.m. on Gazoni Field at Grossmont High School in La Mesa.

The tournament consisted of round robin play on Friday and Saturday, with the top two teams advancing to the championship. Teams representing San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix took part in the three-day tournament. The all-star team from the San Francisco-based California Women’s Baseball League went 4-0 in tournament play to advance to the championship, while the Los Angeles Mavericks came in with a 3-1 record. The Mavericks’ lone loss in tournament play came at the hands of San Francisco in a 10-1 decision. San Diego struggled in the tournament, going 1-3, with their lone win coming from a 13-7 win against the Phoenix Heat.

“We just had a tough weekend,” Chris Hill of San Diego’s California Sabres told the Gay and Lesbian Times. “We had a lot of fun, but it was a tough weekend in terms of on the field. We had a lot of errors and some trouble hitting. A lot of the players were playing together for the first time … so I am looking forward to our next go around and to when we go to Fort Myers in Florida.”

Fort Myers will be the site of the annual Women’s Baseball National Championship, scheduled to begin on Nov. 5.

In the championship game, Rhonda Palmer of San Francisco threw a complete game three-hitter to pick up her second win in the tournament. Her first win was also against the Mavericks — she pitched the first five innings of a game that was called early under a 10-run mercy rule.

“Our league season just ended, while all of the other teams’ seasons just got under way, so we knew we might have an advantage,” said Palmer of her team’s outstanding performance in the tournament. “We’ve been in training for this, so the tournament was a test in a way.”

San Francisco scored six runs in the first inning of the championship game, and all nine of the starters crossed home plate during the course of the game, which ended with a final score of 15-2. The standout of the game for San Francisco was leadoff batter Katie Cleary, who played second base and went 3-for-5 with a pair of runs scored and a double. Defensively, Cleary started off a double play in the first inning to shut down the Mavericks.

San Diego is calling the inaugural tournament a success, but is undecided on whether or not to coordinate the event with Pride next year.

“The teams that were here all said they had a really great time,” said Hill, who also helped organize the tournament. “I heard a lot of talk about coming back for next year and what they would be doing to get ready, so we are really looking forward to an even better tournament next year.”

In the meantime, anyone looking to check out women’s baseball can see local league play this Sunday, starting at 11:30 a.m. on field six at Hourglass Park in Mira Mesa.