EMERSON, Ga. – One of the many perks of coming to Georgia to participate in a Perfect Game event is having the option of winding down at Turner Field to watch the Atlanta Braves play. Team Force Ohio took advantage of that opportunity as they ended a hard fought day at the LakePoint complex in Emerson with a little team bonding at the Braves game.

Their time of relaxation was well deserved, as they easily beat the SEB 15u team that they faced in their first game of pool play, 12-0. The bats came alive for the Force Ohio in this first game, and they will continue to look to their bats for the rest of the tournament to give them a shot at the championship.

Steven Deusiano led the way for Force Ohio in this morning game, hitting an astounding 4-for-4 on the game. Charlie Finucan was right behind him with three hits, and the entire Force team combined for a grand total of 15 hits.

Fifteen hits in one game is a great way to start off a tournament and Steven Desuiano plans to stay hot for the rest of tournament with his patient approach at the plate, going deep into counts to lock onto his pitch and drive it to all areas of the field.

“I was fortunate play well today, and I’m glad that all of our hard work is paying off so far,” said Deusiano. “My team has been looking forward to this tournament to show everyone what we’re about.”

Baseball in the north is a little bit different compared to baseball in the south and Force Ohio came to show what northern baseball was all about. A lot of focus is put on teams from Georgia, Texas, Florida, and California, but this young program out of Ohio wants to assert themselves as a powerhouse amongst these southern programs.

They were only formed a few years ago, but have experienced great success in Ohio, winning a state championship tournament prior to this week. They have also won the Buckeye Elite tournament, which is one of the bigger tournaments in Ohio, and placed high in a number of other tournaments. Force Ohio feels that they are ready to perform on a national stage, having already gotten it done on a smaller stage.

“The first year that we formed as a program, we placed very well in some state tournaments and we have continued to make progress each year”, said Head Coach Josh Bieneman. “We started about three years ago, and the guys that we have brought to this tournament are kids that have been with us since day one.

“We have done a couple of Super25 events with PG up in Ohio, but this is our first time getting down to Georgia and competing in one of the actual major tournaments.”

The coaches of Force Ohio try to instill a sense of work ethic into their players. They feel that teams are always going to be faster or have bigger size, but as long as the work ethic is there then they will always have a chance to win. Everyone from the players to the coaching staff spend time everyday perfecting their craft because they feel that preparation for big tournaments, especially like this week’s PG/EC Invitational, is what wins you games in the long run.

Every team steps on the field everyday with the intent of winning, but the players of Force Ohio feel that they have just a little bit more to play for than the others.

“When we developed the program at first, we tried to model our teams after other successful teams,” added Bieneman. “As time progressed, we wanted to have our own kind of style and that style was going to be that of the workhorse.”

Not only did they want to teach kids the importance of hard work, but Force Ohio wanted to make their program homegrown. A lot of different programs will search around from state to state looking for someone that can help them win for that specific tournament, but Force Ohio wanted to comprise their team of players who bought into the program.

“We didn’t want to get in the habit of calling people from other states to have them come play for us for a weekend,” said Bieneman. “We wanted to have kids that were invested in what we want to do and wanted to have kids that were going to work their butts off.

“We do have some guys that can get their fastball up into the mid-80s, but we are really going to rely on our bats this weekend. If we keep up the offense that we displayed today, we should be in good shape. Whether we are down or up in a game, we know that we have the ability to come out on top in any game thanks to what we can do at the plate.”

This year’s 15u Perfect Game-East Cobb Invitational will feature a lot of teams, but none of them can say that they hail from Ohio. Because, the Force have extra motivation to perform well, represent their state well and chase the championship trophy.