FORT MYERS, Fla. – Not long after surviving a legitimate scare in their second-round playoff game at the 15u Perfect Game BCS Finals, the Georgia Jackets National team found themselves in another very tight spot.
The time and location were basically the same – Wednesday morning at Terry Park – but the situation had shifted from the second round of the playoffs to the even more intense quarterfinal round. The No. 3-seeded Jackets National out of Alpharetta, Ga., were facing Georgia neighbor and sixth-seeded Chain National-Moss out of Warner Robins and were very quickly in a hole.
With two outs in the top of the first, Chain Nationals’ Eli Kramer ripped a double to the wall in right-center at Terry Park Stadium, scoring Christian Cairo, who had been hit by a pitch to leadoff the game, and Colton Olasin, who had smacked the first of his two singles in the game. A third runner was thrown out at the plate trying to score for the third out of the inning.
The Georgia Jackets National pitcher who surrendered those two early runs was 2019 right-hander Chad Knight, a newcomer to the Jackets’ organization. But even though Knight had only been around his teammates for the last six days, he had experienced enough to know that a 2-0 lead wouldn’t hold enough water to fill a bird bath.
“This whole tournament we’ve been really resilient, and when we’re down we always have confidence in ourselves and our ability,” Knight said Wednesday. “We have a great lineup, 1-through-9, and a really great team won today.”
It took some time, but those resilient Jackets finally broke through for five runs in the bottom of the fifth and held on for a gratifying 5-3 victory that launched them into Thursday’s 15u BCS Finals final four, with both semifinal games and the championship game being played at City of Palms Park.
And, my-oh-my, what a salty final four it is, one where two teams from Georgia and two teams from Florida will duke it out for a Perfect Game national championship. The morning’s first semifinal at COP pits the No. 9 MVP Banditos (8-0-0) from Miami against No. 5 Team Elite 15’s Prime (7-0-0) out of Winder, Ga., followed shortly with the No. 3 Jackets (7-0-0) taking on No. 2 Florida Burn Platinum 2019 (7-0-0) from Sarasota.
Sixteen teams opened play in the second round of the playoffs Wednesday morning, and it wasn’t a very diverse contingent for a PG national championship tournament. Nine of those sweet 16 are based in Florida, five in Georgia and one each in Texas and North Carolina.
The Banditos – who had to a play a first-round playoff game on Tuesday – upset top-seeded ABC National Force (6-1-0) from Houston, Texas, 8-1 in their quarterfinal game; Team Elite 15’s Prime escaped the No. 4 Georgia Bombers 15u (6-1-0) from Alpharetta, Ga., 5-4; and the Burn Platinum 2019 got past No. 7 Florida Stealth 15u Red (6-1-0) from Delray Beach, Fla., 5-3.
The Jackets National allowed what started out as a second-round romp against the No. 14 Florida Burn 2019 to turn into a bit of a nail-biter in early action Wednesday morning at Terry Park. The Jackets led 4-1 after one inning of play and 7-3 after three but let the Burn back in it before holding on for an 8-6 victory. Jackets’ head coach Josh Meade was happy with the result, not so much with the effort.
“(The players have) done a pretty good of maintaining a pretty good energy level in most every game we’ve played,” he said before the start of the quarterfinal game. “Probably the most disappointed I’ve been (this week) was during the (game against Florida Burn 2019) when we went up-and-down in spurts, being in it and then kind of relaxing. The teams are too good right now at this point in the tournament; you can’t have that kind of attitude against anybody if you’re going to win.”
After Chain National-Moss’s two-run first in the quarterfinal contest, the game settled into a pitcher’s duel between the Jackets’ Knight and the Chain gang’s Chase Wilkerson. That changed abruptly in the bottom of the fifth.
Knight led-off the frame with a double, which was followed in quick order by an RBI single from Ryan Getz, a run-scoring fielder’s choice groundout from Hunter Martin, a two-run single off the bat of Mason Kenney and an RBI single from Nathan Camp. Chain National had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the sixth only to be left empty-handed, but did manage to push one more run across in the top of the seventh.
Knight finished with a pitching line of 4 2/3 innings, two earned runs on four hits, four strikeouts and two walks. Wilkerson was even more the epitome of a tireless workhorse, lasting all six innings while pitching in paralyzing heat and humidity, giving up five earned runs on nine hits with six strikeouts and three walks; he was 1-for-3 at the plate.
“I think we’ve played OK getting to this point but I don’t think we’re clicking on all cylinders yet,” head coach Damien Moss told PG during a pregame interview. “Our pitchers haven’t been as good as we expected but we’ve got some clutch hitting and our offense has bailed them out a little bit.”
Some of the guys that played for this Chain National-Moss played together briefly last fall but otherwise have been playing together for only about the last six weeks. “They’re competitors; they just don’t want to give up,” Moss said. “That’s hard to find in kids this young.”
Wilkerson is a prospect scouts will enjoy tracking throughout his high school career. He’s a 5-foot-11, 160-pound 2018 right-hander/shortstop/left-handed hitter from Headland, Ala., and a Florida State commit ranked No. 167 nationally.
He went to bat in six of Chain National’s seven games and slashed .533/.611/.667, counting a pair of doubles among his eight hits; he drove in nine runs and scored six. Wilkerson totaled 10 innings pitched in two appearances and threw four, two-hit, shutout innings with seven strikeouts and one walk in the appearance before Wednesday’s.
This Georgia Jackets National 15u team, meanwhile, has plenty of prospects scouts will be watching the next two or three years. Among the 2019s on the roster, shortstop C.J. Abrams (Alpharetta, Ga.) is ranked No. 36 nationally; Knight (Westport, Conn.) is at No. 80, and first baseman Marc Esquivel (Edinburg, Texas) is a top-1,000.
The 2018s include catcher Bradley Prince Jr. (Cumming, Ga.) is No. 387, infielder Michael Wein (Milton, Ga.) is a top-1,000 and the shortstop Camp (Ringgold, Ga.) is a high follow. Every working part has come together to make the 15u PG BCS Finals experience a good one with another day to go.
“We’ve always been a defense and pitching team where our pitchers know they have a really good defense behind them and they don’t have to be so perfect; balls can be in play and our guys will make it,” Meade said. “But in this tournament they’ve got the bats going a little bit, which is good to see. Adding that extra element makes things a lot easier on me, for sure.”
This is the first tournament Knight has played in as a member of the Jackets National: “They took me in with open arms,” he said. “It’s been a great experience and I love playing with them and I can’t wait to keep playing with them for the rest of the summer. … When we’re out there, we’re supporting each other – I’m becoming great friends with a lot of these kids – and we help each other out and we pick each other up; that’s how we roll.”
The Georgia Jackets National team seems to be in a good place both physically and mentally heading into Thursday’s final four. Meade said this is the best he’s felt about this team all summer, noting that it’s pretty good timing with the 15u PG WWBA National Championship coming up later this month. A good showing on Thursday could provide some much-needed momentum heading into that grand affair, and the players have the mindset to succeed.
“We all wanted to (be in this position) and we all set our expectations to win this tournament,” Knight said. “We’re going to come at it with our all and we have a lot momentum going into tomorrow; hopefully we can a couple of more great team wins.”