FORT MYERS, Fla. – One of Lee County’s frequent round of lightning strikes almost forced the Scorpions 2017 Black baseball team out Altamonte Springs, Fla., to settle for a co-championship Sunday afternoon at the 17u Perfect Game BCS Finals. Later on, another round of lightning might have come just in the nick of time to preserve the Scorpions Black’s PG solo national championship efforts.
The No. 3-seeded Scorpions 2017 Black (10-0-0) came back from a nearly two-hour early afternoon lightning delay to punch in four runs over four innings and made that work in a 4-1 championship game victory over the No. 1-seeded Florida Burn Platinum 2017 (9-1-0) out of Sarasota.
The game, played on Field 5 at the Player Development 5-Plex just east of historic downtown Fort Myers, was stopped after the completion of six innings when another round of lightning – this time eventually accompanied by rain – moved into the area.
“I’m not surprised these guys accomplished this,” Scorpions 2017 Black “interim” head coach Jordan Rusk said while finding temporary cover from a sudden cloudburst that sent players, coaches, family and friends from both teams sprinting towards the 5-Plex parking lot. “These guys love to play the game – they always come out with a lot of energy – and nothing brings them down.
“I didn’t think the delay would hinder us at all and I knew we would bounce back and still have the same intensity out there once we started to play again.”
The first lightning detector horn went off at about 1 p.m. local time with the championship game scoreless through two innings. Over the next two hours the detector kept resetting itself when it picked up a strike within 10 miles of the 5-Plex, a frustrating development that pushes the all-clear back a half-hour each time it happens. Weather radars were studied and there was serious consideration of naming co-champions when, at around 2:45, the all-clear horn was sounded and the teams returned to the field.
When play resumed, the Scorpions Black immediately scored an unearned run on a throwing error to take a 1-0 lead and seemed to gain momentum while the play of the Burn became increasingly – and uncharacteristically – sloppy. The Scorpions Black scored a second unearned run in the top of the fourth on yet another Burn Platinum throwing error to take a 2-0 lead, and added two very important runs in the top of the sixth on RBI singles from Cam Meehan and Will Saxton.
2016 right-hander Sean Hupp started the game for the Scorpions Black and held the Burn Platinum hitless and scoreless over the first two innings, but didn’t return after the all-clear was sounded. 2017 left-hander Connor Scheitzach came on in the third and carried the no-hitter into the sixth.
And there the bid ended. The Burn Platinum’s Graham Dvorak led-off the frame with an infield single and moved to third on a double from Clayton Coringrato. The shutout bid then promptly went by the wayside when Dvorak scored on a single off the bat of Samuel McMillan.
The Scorpions Black hit .295 as a team during their 10 victories at the 17u PG BCS Finals, with 13 of their 75 hits going for extra bases. That offensive effort was led by Meehan, who went 13-for-26 (.500) with a double and a triple, six RBI and 11 runs scored. Sean Hupp and Will Saxton each had nine hits at the event, with Hupp contributing a double and two triple and Saxton a double, triple, home run and eight RBI.
Meehan, a 6-foot, 170-pound unranked and uncommitted 2017 outfielder/infielder/right-hander from Orlando, was name a co-Most Valuable Player; Meehan both singled and scored twice and drove in a run in the championship game.
He shared the MVP award with the Burn Platinum’s McMillan, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound 2017 catcher/infielder from Live Oak, Fla., who PG ranks as the No. 433 overall prospect in his class and who has committed to Florida. McMillan proved to be a tough out the entire week, hitting 16-for-24 (.667) with three doubles and a home run, while driving in eight runs and scoring 14.
The Burn Platinum hit .320 as a team with 22 of their 72 hits going for extra bases, so McMillan obviously had a lot of help in the lineup. 2018 catcher Matheu Nelson, a Florida State commit ranked No. 73 nationally, totaled 10 hits, including three doubles and two home runs, and drove in 12 runs while scoring eight. 2017 third baseman/right-hander Tyler Shuck, a Florida Gulf Coast commit ranked No. 468, had nine hits with three doubles, two triples, 10 RBI and eight runs.
The choice for the Most Valuable Pitcher at the 17u PG BCS Finals was about as clear-cut as it gets. Burn Platinum’s Colton Gordon-Zimring, a 6-foot-5, 205-pound 2017 left-hander from St. Pete Beach, Fla., who has committed to Florida and who PG ranks as a top-500 national prospect, was simply lights-out. He ate-up 11 2/3 innings over three appearances spread out over seven days, and didn’t allow a run (0.00 ERA) on five hits while striking out 19 and walking only two.
The Burn Platinum were playing without many of the top prospects that led them to a 9-2-0 record and a spot in the quarterfinals at the 17u PG WWBA National Championship in Cartersville, Ga., earlier this month, including 2016 Perfect Game All-American Brady McConnell.
Outstanding pitching performances were the order of the day in a pair of semifinal games played Sunday morning at the 5-Plex, with the Burn Platinum getting past the No. 12 Scorpions 2017 Prime (7-2-0) from Altamonte Springs, 2-0, and the Scorpions Black stopping the No. 26 6-4-3 DP Athletics-Haddock (6-3-0) out of Marietta, Ga., 8-0 in six innings.
The Burn Platinum’s Gordon-Zimring was brilliant in shutting down the potent Scorpions Prime’s bats, surrendering only a double and a single to No. 122-ranked Florida commit Brady Smith and just one other single in seven innings of work; he struck out 10 without walking anyone.
Ole Miss recruit Douglas Nikhazy delivered an RBI double in the second and Clemson commit Sam Keating smacked a two-out run-scoring single that followed Alex Arauz’s two-out triple in the fourth to account for the Burn’s scoring.
Prime 2017 right-hander Zane Stephens, a Mississippi State commit, scattered five hits over five innings and allowed only one earned run, striking out seven and walking one. The Scorpions 2017 Prime had won seven straight games after losing their pool-play-opener last Monday.
The Scorpions Black jumped to a 5-0 lead after two innings of play and ended the game by the run-rule with a three-run bottom of the eighth in their win over the 6-4-3 DP A’s. The Black totaled 12 hits in the win – all singles led by Meehan (3-for-3, 1 RBI, 2 runs), Saxton (2-for-3, 3 RBI) and Quentin Martinez (2-for-2, 1 RBI, 2 runs).
2017 right-hander Matt Rinks threw the six-inning, four-hit shutout, striking out two without any walks. The 6-4-3 DP A’s advanced to the 34-team playoffs as the No. 26 seed after two losses during pool-play, but then won second- and third-round playoff games Saturday before outlasting the No. 2 Ninth Inning Elite, 4-3, in one of the two quarterfinals played Sunday morning.
The eight-team quarterfinal field was set Saturday afternoon but two of the four games were postponed Saturday and moved to Sunday morning. Four of the eight quarterfinalists were Florida programs, three were from Georgia and one – the fourth-seeded EvoShield Canes Northeast 17u – was from Massachusetts. The Canes were eliminated by the Scorpions 2017 Prime in the quarters, making the semis a strictly Florida-Georgia affair.
The championship game would have been an all-Scorpions affair had the Scorps Prime been able to get past the Burn Platinum in the semifinal round. The Scorpions 2017 Black eliminated the Scorpions 2017 Purple in a third-round playoff game by a score of 5-4, a contest in which the Black scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh to rally from a 4-0 deficit. In Coach Rusk’s way of thinking, that was a true example of this team’s grit, something a lot more impressive than waiting out a little lightning.
“This is huge for this team and they absolutely deserve every game, every second, every accolade from this tournament,” he said. “These guys have worked really hard this summer, and while some stuff hasn’t gone our way in the past but things really came together down here. This is how they play every day, day-in and day-out, and I’m not surprised at all that we did this.”
2016 17u BCS Finals co-MVP: Cam Meehan
