EMERSON, Ga. – The Carolina Vipers captured the PG Elite Underclass Championship title with a 3-1 victory over the Georgia Bombers in a rain-shortened game. The title game victory gives the Vipers five consecutive wins and completes a strong underdog narrative as the Vipers dropped their first game of the tournament and won the championship as a #7 seed.
A patient approach at the plate combined with opportune hits gave the Vipers the offensive edge they needed to win the game. The big blow came in the first inning as they scored all three of their runs early to hold on and win. Ryan Healy had the big hit with an RBI single but the entire lineup was extremely patient in the batter’s box and that paid off with four walks in the inning.
Manager Aaron Bray was quick to heap praise on his team for their hard work and preparation for this tournament. Bray instilled a meritocratic belief that if his team worked harder than everyone else than it would be impossible to be beaten. This belief echoed through to the entire team as all the players were very vocal about buying into this belief.
“You have to credit these guys with the hard work that they put in,” said Bray. “Two nights a week with me and all the stuff they do on their own, this is a reflection of all the work they put in. This is a small, local team and people don’t travel to play for us. We play together and they play together. It’s a great team to coach.”
Fall baseball can be very difficult to get an entire team together on a regular schedule to practice and get closer. Players have school, other obligations, and other sports (mainly football) that occupy their time and unfortunately there isn’t enough time for baseball. This is not true for the Vipers. The players have given 110 percent effort and have made an impassioned effort to practice together and hone their skills in order to remain at the top of their game throughout the fall season. Their abilities were put to the test in this tournament but ultimately their resolve, and talent, shone through.
“They bought into the fact that they have to do stuff on their own,” said Bray. “Back in Charlotte the high schools are going at it right now so sometimes they come late to practice. We put their high schools first but, again, this is just a reflection of their hard work and commitment that they put into this team and into getting better.”
Realistically, it is impossible to try to predict the outcome of one game between high school aged kids, no matter the amount of work that’s put in. What happens on the field usually comes down to the talent level, number of adjustments made, and, perhaps most importantly, the present mentality of the team. Bray did an excellent job at getting his team to buy into the notion of not only hard work but also competition. Championship caliber teams don’t often sweep through games easily, but they grind out wins in ways where other teams couldn’t. That facet of the game is where the Vipers stand tall as their will to compete helped propel them through adversity and ultimately the championship.
“Compete and play hard,” said Bray. “That’s all you can do in this game. I’ve been around this game for a while, I’m young but I know that the harder you compete the better chances you have.”
As with any championship team, the Vipers will celebrate this win but once next week comes around it is right back to business as usual. This weekend is nowhere near the end of fall baseball and Bray and his team knows that there is a lot of work to be done. There are tournaments to be one, levels of play to improve, and work to be done.
“We’ll take the championship but come Wednesday night we’re back to the drawing board ready to play next weekend in another Perfect Game event,” said Bray. “Go back to the drawing board and get better, these kids can always get better.”
“We’re at the top right now and we want to stay there,” said Jordan Parr. “So we’re obviously going to work very hard to stay there and work hard every day in practice and bring it on the field.”
The MV-Pitcher of the tournament was Luc Scudarelli, the No. 13 lefthanded pitcher in the state of Georgia for the class of 2018, of the Bombers. Scudarelli had two appearances this tournament, including an impressive start in the quarterfinals, and finished with 4.1 innings pitched with one save, only one earned run, and five strikeouts. The MVP of the tournament was Jordan Parr of the Vipers. Even though Parr missed the first game of the tournament he managed to lead the team in batting average (.538), on-base percentage (.600), slugging percentage (.846), OPS (1.446), and RBI (7).
“Oh my gosh it’s crazy, especially because I drove in yesterday,” said Parr on being named MVP. “Being MVP is great and with the team losing the first day and coming out and winning is something special. I was going into this weekend working very hard. I was comfortable and seeing the ball well and wanted to hit line drives and see the ball well to get the team to where we are now.”
2016 PG Elite Underclass Championship runner-up: Georgia Bombers 16u
2016 PG Elite Underclass Championship MVP: Jordan Parr
2016 PG Elite Underclass Championship MV-Pitcher: Luc Scuderelli
