The Georgia Bombers left LakePoint earlier this week as runner-up in the 16u WWBA Memorial Day tournament and return today with aspirations to return to the championship game for the 16u Perfect Game/East Cobb Invitational. The Bombers were defeated by the East Cobb Colt .45s last weekend by a score of 5-1, but that hasn’t deterred the Bombers, in fact it’s just made them hungrier for a championship.
“Honestly our goal is to head back to the championship,” said Ryan Bliss, a 2018 Auburn commit. “But win it this time.”
The Bombers open the tournament on Thursdsay with a game against Team Elite West 16u and Manger Wes Rynders knows that his team needs to be focused in order to come away this weekend with another championship berth. The goal for the Bombers is always to win and Rynders sees a path to the championship game this weekend as well.
“We have some big expectations for our players and for our program,” said Rynders. “We’re always striving to do the best we can and that is to make the championship game. We always take it game to game and we obviously played some competitive teams last tournament and we came out on top and hopefully that’s the case for this tournament as well.
“The goal is to win the pool. It always is. To get into bracket play and you never know what can happen. We just want to give ourselves a chance.”
The relatively new program out of Georgia has already started to make a name for themselves with Rynders, previously of East Cobb’s baseball program, laying the foundation, and Bliss, the No. 29 overall player in the class of 2018, leading the way. With on-field talent the Bombers have set themselves up nicely for the foreseeable future to be a top-notch baseball program in Georgia.
“We just started in August,” said Rynders of the Georgia Bombers program. “So it’s the first year of the program. I was over at East Cobb for about eight years, I was the director of operations with some of those Astros teams. I’ve been in the game for quite some time and that’s helped recruiting this year and hopefully that will continue moving forward with our play on the field. Still a long way to go with us being our first year.”
Summer baseball season has unofficially kicked off with the passing of Memorial Day weekend and with the calendar moving into June. It is important for the players to preserve their health, especially with so many tournaments and showcases going on. The manager and coaches share that responsibility to look out for their player’s health and placing them in the best position to succeed.
Rynders knows he needs to make sure his team is in top physical shape and he’s taking measures to make sure they get their rest. Slotting healthy players into the lineup not only looks out for their own players’ well-being, but it allows the players to be exposed to scouts and coaches at the top of their physical ability.
“It’s tough on the boys, from a physical standpoint,” said Rynders. “When you play seven games in three days you get tired. It’s about managing their health and hopefully I can put them in a place to be successful. The ultimate goal of this isn’t to win, which would be great, but it’s to get them in front of the college scouts and college coaches and have the ability to get that exposure.”
Rynders knows his players are up for the challenge as the majority team has played in these types of tournaments before. He expects his team to be ready to contribute every game.
“They’re (members of the Bombers) all going to play,” added Rynders. “And they’re going to play a lot. Pitching depends on the situation, I may limit some guys so we can have them for future games, there might be where there’s a pool play type of pitcher and I’m going to let him roll with it going six or seven innings. With the new pitch count rules it definitely changes things, and that’s a good thing because it’s about protecting the kids and protecting the arms and (Perfect Game) has always been about that and that’s something I’ve always been cognizant of in East Cobb.”
The Bombers endured a setback on Thursday as they fell to Team Elite West 16u by a score of 9-1. Austin Moody knocked in the only run of the day for the Bombers as they were limited all day by the pitching of Team Elite. Bliss managed to go 1-for-2 in the game while Darius Pope displayed a very patient approach, as he reached base three times on walks. Jonathan Brand, Brian Trepanier and Clay Langley all threw for Team Elite and they shut down the Bombers by racking up eight strikeouts on only four hits for the day.
Seth Shadix led the way for Team Elite offensively. He registered two hits in two at-bats with one RBI and two runs scored. The offense made the Bombers make a lot of pitches and worked counts as they tallied eight walks on the day.
The Bombers knew this would be an uphill climb as they realize they are in one of the most competitive pools of the tournament. Bliss knew not to take their opponents lightly and to always be prepared for challenges along the way.
“It’s going to be a tough pool,” said Bliss. “All of the teams in the pool are pretty good. We have to come out and bring our A game and play hard every game; it’s not going to be an easy tournament.”