FORT MYERS, Fla. – Just over 30 miles separate the FTB Baseball and Scorpions Baseball organizations' headquarters, with FTB based in Kissimmee, Fla., just south of Orlando, and the Scorpions based in Altamonte Springs, Fla., a north suburb of the home of Disney World.
FTB Baseball and Scorpions Baseball have grown into two of the most established, most respected and most successful organizations in the country, and they also take the responsibility of representing the state of Florida in the highest regard very seriously.
Perhaps it goes without saying that there is always a lot on the line whenever the two put teams on the field to face one another on one of Perfect Game’s biggest national stages, as was the case in the final game at the PG WWBA World Underclass Championship.
In this particular instance – and it could be very different the next time the situation occurs in a similar scenario – perhaps it was appropriate that the team that has “Florida Travel Ball” as its name came out on top.
Oraj Anu came up with a big two-out, RBI double in the bottom of the sixth inning that broke a 2-2 tie and FTB Black made it stand for a 3-2 victory over the Scorpions 2017 Prime in the championship game of the PG WWBA Underclass World Championship on an amazing sun-soaked mid-October Monday afternoon at the Boston Red Sox’s JetBlue Player Development Complex.
Both No. 6-seeded FTB Black (9-0-0) and the No. 9 Scorpions 2017 Prime (8-1-0) played in six playoff games in about a 30-hour span on Sunday and Monday, totaling more than 42 innings of work in the process. The two teams played in first-, second- and third-round bracket-play games Sunday, and then won quarterfinal- and semifinal-round games on Monday before meeting in the championship game.
“We had to play three games yesterday and we had to play three games today, and I was like, ‘Woo, this is going to be tough,’” Anu said Monday.
“We went out to eat last night, and we told the players that no matter what happens (on Monday) we’re going to go out and play 100 percent; we’re going to leave everything on the field,” FTB Black head coach Luis Arzeno said after the title tilt. “We never talk about losing; we’re always talking about winning. … I wake up in the morning and I pray and I give this game to God.”
With the heavy workload, both teams were short on pitching by the time the championship game got underway at mid-afternoon Monday, but it was a pitcher’s duel, nonetheless.
FTB Black right-handers Carlos Torres and Brandon Stone, and lefthander Gabriel Rodriguez, combined to allow two earned runs in a seven-inning four-hitter, striking out nine and walking five. Scorpions 2017 Prime 2017 left-hander Michael Largey and 2017 righties Tyler Jones and Michael Jimenez got together on a six-inning five-hitter, allowing three earned runs with six strikeouts and two walks.
FTB’s Stone is a primary shortstop/catcher and Rodriguez a primary outfielder. On the other side, the Scorpions’ Largey is a primary outfielder.
“I think it’s very crazy how we were able to win this,” FTB Black’s Anu said. “We ran out of pitchers and we had to use position players to win this game. I’m over here with a bruised thumb trying to hit lefty – I couldn’t even hit righty -- and it’s just crazy how we won.”
The Prime took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning without the benefit of a base-hit after Cyrus Grimes reached on a one-out walk and eventually scored on a balk. The Black tied it in the bottom of the first when Brian Ellis reached after being plunked by a pitch and scored on a fielder’s choice groundout from Alec Sanchez.
The scored remained tied until both teams found the plate again in the fourth. The Prime grabbed a 2-1 lead in the top of the frame on the strength of an RBI single from Christopher Seise, but the Black tied it in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single from Alec Sanchez.
Sanchez finished 2-for-3 with a pair of runs batted in and Anu was 3-for-3 with an RBI; they accounted for all five of FTB’s hits. Brady Smith was 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored to lead the Prime.
At the conclusion of the event, Anu, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound uncommitted home-schooler from Orlando who is ranked No. 64 in the 2017 national prospect rankings, was named the Most Valuable Player. He went 11-for-24 (.458) with two doubles, a home run, 10 RBI and three runs scored in FTB Black’s nine games, but was especially impressive in its six playoff games, hitting .600 (9-for-15) with a double and four RBI.
“This is the best team I’ve ever played on, to be honest,” he said. “These are all future D-I players; future major-leaguers,” he said. “These guys are all amazing. I love these guys so much. After how our pitching started out, it was like, we have to win this; we have the best pitching out here. Our hitting is amazing, also. We knew today that we were going to have hit, and that’s it.
FTB 2017 right-hander Logan Allen, an Alabama State commit from Deltona, Fla., made two appearances in the tournament this weekend, and worked 10 2/3, one-hit shutout innings with 14 strikeouts and two walks; he pitched a complete-game one-hitter with eight strikeouts in the Black’s first-round playoff victory over Baseball U Underclass on Sunday. He was named the event’s Most Valuable Pitcher but had to return to school and was not with the team Monday.
“This is a special group and we came here to win. From the first day we said we’re going to win, and we went out and won,” Arzeno said. “I love everybody on this team; everybody hustles and everybody plays hard and I’m really, really proud to be with (FTB founder) George Gonzales and FTB. George is a great person – I met George three years ago – and this is a man who cares for the players.”
Arzeno, Gonzalez and a host of others within the FTB organization certainly have a lot to look forward to, hoping that the core of this group will be together for at least another year. “It’s exciting, because these guys progress every year,” Arzeno said. “We’re going to have the same group for 2016 and I know we’re going to win another one.”
Both FTB Black and the Scorpions 2017 Prime needed some clutch hitting and a hint of heroics in the late innings of their semifinal games just to reach the championship game.
With two out and runners on first and second in the bottom of the ninth inning, Tim Elko came through with a single to left field that scored the speeding Griffin Bernardo from second and snapped a 3-3 tie, and the Prime escaped the No. 52 EvoShield Canes, 4-3, in one of the white-knuckle semifinals.
The Canes (6-2-0), out of Fredericksburg, Va., looked in control when they took a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh, but the Prime’s Michael Spears sent the game into extra innings with a one-out, solo home run that cleared the left field fence.
The Scorpions 2017 Prime plated single runs in both the first and second innings: An RBI groundout from Smith drove in Spears, who had doubled to lead-off the bottom of the first; Tommy Kinney stroked an RBI double in the bottom of the second.
A sacrifice fly from the Canes’ Ashton McGee in the top of the second had tied the score at 1, and the 2-1 lead the Prime took into the bottom of the second vanished very quickly when the Canes’ Buddy Kennedy and Jordan Adell led off the top of the fourth with solo home runs.
Three Scorpions Prime 2017 pitchers combined to allow three earned runs on five hits, striking out 10 and walking one; 2017 righty Cole Beavin pitched the final four shutout innings, giving up two hits and striking out three. Four EvoShield Canes pitchers allowed four earned runs on six hits, striking out 11 and walking seven.
Sanchez, who had eight singles at the tournament and drove in 11 runs and scored eight more, delivered a two-out, groundball RBI single in the bottom of the sixth inning to break a 1-1 deadlock and lift FTB Black to a 2-1 victory over No. 10 Marucci Elite (7-1-0) from Baton Rouge, La., in the other semifinal.
The Black had taken a 1-0 lead when they used a wild pitch to push across a run in the bottom of the third but the Elite tied it in the top of the fourth on a one-out sacrifice fly off the bat of Jordan Anderson.
Black 2017 right-hander Hunter Connor allowed in earned run on four hits while striking out six and walking one in six solid innings of work. 2018 Venezuelan right-hander Carlos Torres allowed one hit and struck out one in a scoreless seventh to pick up the save.
Marucci Elite’s Brendan Cellucci and Mark Alden Blest – both 2017 left-handers – with both giving up one hit and one earned run. Cellucci worked 4 1/3 innings, striking out three and walking five and Alden Blest went 1 2/3, striking out three and walking one. Taylor Young and Jacob Pearson each had two hits – one of Young’s was a double – to account for four of the Elite’s five hits in the game.
Championship Day kicked off at 8:30 a.m. at the JetBlue Complex with four quarterfinal-round games: No. 9 Scorpions 2017 Prime topped the No. 1 Florida Burn Pennant (5-1-0) from Sarasota, Fla., 3-0; the No. 52 EvoShield Canes blanked No. 28 SCORE International 2017 (6-1-0) out of Land O’ Lakes, Fla., 8-0; No. 10 Marucci Elite got past No. Elite Baseball Training Chicago 2017 (5-1-0), 5-2; and No. 6 FTB Black pushed past No. 62 East Coast Sox Select (5-2-0) from Cordova, Tenn., 8-2.
Canes’ 2017 right-hander Gavin Williams threw a five-inning, two-hit shutout at SCORE, striking out five and walking none. Scorpions’ 2017 righties Ryan Dease and Ben Good combined on a seven-inning, three-hit shutout of the Burn, striking out nine and walking three.
At the end of the day, two first-class organizations from Central Florida came together and fought it out for a PG national championship at the WWBA Underclass World Championship in Southwest Florida. They both proved to be the best Florida travel baseball has to offer.
“We’re different organizations, but we’re friends and (both programs) do the best for the players,” Arzeno said. “It’s not always about who wins the championship, it’s about good competition and providing great opportunities for all the players out on the field.”
Consider it done …
2015 WWBA Underclass World Championship runner-up: Scorpions 2017 Prime
2015 WWBA Underclass World Championship MVP: Oraj Anu
2015 WWBA Underclass World Championship MV-Pitcher: Logan Allen
