EMERSON, Ga. – Academy Select persevered through the pouring
rain at LakePoint to win the 14u WWBA National Championship by a score of 13-7
against the Louisiana Tigers.
“Well, it was just a tough game for the pitchers, so we had
a lot of walks, and you know, it’s kind of tough to hit when balls are all over
the place, but we got the hits we needed,” said head coach Linty Ingram. “Obviously,
the weather had a lot to do with the pitchers throwing strikes, and both sides
had trouble throwing strikes, but I thought we competed good. That team over
there is really good, they’re competitive, and they battled.”
Both teams had exciting runs to the championship game, and
each of their semifinal games came down to the wire. The Louisiana Tigers came
into the game 9-1, with their only non-championship loss coming in a 0-1 pool
play game against the Florida Burn 2021 Platinum. The pitching staff threw
three shutouts, surrendering only 15 runs over those 10 games. At the plate,
the team scored 61 runs in pool play and added another 18 in the playoffs.
Their path to the championship included two close games, a 1-0 win in the
quarterfinals against the Banditos Scout Team, and a 4-3 walkoff win in the
semifinals against Team Elite 14u Prospects.
Academy Select had similar numbers as the Tigers coming into
the game, having outscored opponents 67-8 in pool play to move on to the
playoffs. The team notched seven shutouts en route to winning 11 games in the
tournament. Like the Tigers, they too were a part of close games, having walked
off in the second round of the playoffs to win 1-0 against All Out Pack. In
that game, Luke Robertson turned in a complete game, two-hit shutout against
GoWags in the second round of the playoffs for Academy Select. He would be
named the MV-Pitcher of the tournament, having thrown 10 innings, giving up
only two hits, one walk and no runs, striking out 14.
“It’s great,” Robertson said about winning the award. “I
just started pitching a couple years ago, gotten a lot better, so just learning
everything and learning day-by-day. [My keys were] just hitting my spots,
hitting my spots with offspeed, having three pitches that were working for me
and just keeping them off-balance.”
A solid pitching performance in a close game would also be
the story in the semifinals, as the team would escape a bases-loaded, two-out
jam, stranding the winning run at third on a groundout to the third baseman.
Although they were no-hit by Team Elite 14u Nation, they were able to score two
runs on bases loaded walks, which was just enough to scrape out a win.
“That one there I saw really good pitching,” Ingram said
about the semifinal game against Team Elite 14u Nation. “Gavin Perryman
started, probably didn’t have his best stuff of the year, but he competed
really hard. Then I brought in Zach Rike who’s had a really good tournament on
the mound, and he competed. They had a couple of infield hits in that last
inning, and then he made the pitch, the 3-2 pitch to get the out. Our third
baseman made a great play, it was just the same for us in that game, just good pitching.
There guy on the mound was really good, we got no-hit.”
In the championship game, Academy Select struck first in the
rain, scoring three runs in the bottom of the second inning. Karson Krowka and
Luke Robertson each had a sac-fly in the inning, and were followed up by an
RBI-single by Nathaniel Price.
The Tigers would respond with four runs in the top half of
the third, with all of them coming after a collision between the runner Reese
Smith and the second baseman Karson Krowka. The umpires originally ruled the
hitter Keen out at first, but they overturned the call, placing runners at the
corners with two outs. Rhett Rosevear would single home a run and Reese Smith
would later score on a fall down play by the Tigers. Colin Husser would triple
home two runs to put his team up 4-3.
The back-and-forth would continue in the bottom of the
inning, with Academy Select scoring a run on a fielder’s choice by Keegan
Allen. Samuel Kenerson hit a two-out, RBI single in the top of the fourth to move
the score to 5-4, breaking the tie. The Tigers would relinquish the lead in the
bottom of the fourth as Academy Select would score five, as the Tigers staff
walked in three runs. A two-out, two-RBI single by Allen would push the score
to 9-5. Although the Tigers scored two more, their offense would fall short of
the 13 runs scored by Academy Select.
Although the game was characterized by errors, walks and
wild pitches that were a result of the heavy rains, Ingram said that his team
did a great job of bouncing back when things were going wrong. Yesterday he
said that he needed his team to stay engaged in the game, no matter what the
score was, and they certainly did that today, continuing to tack on runs whether
they were up or down.
“We made some mistakes defensively that we don’t normally
make, but I’m proud of them man. They know what they needed to do. They made a
mistake, they came and got a run, they made a mistake, they would get two runs,
so if you’re going to play a game that way, they understand it. We’ve won all
kinds of ways, we’ve won big and we’ve won tight, and we’ve won low scoring
games, so it’s just a dog fight to the end,” Ingram said.
Keegan Allen led the team at the plate in the game, collecting
three hits and four RBIs out of the No. 4 spot in the lineup. Jonathan Huff got
the team going at the top of the order, scoring three runs, while going
2-for-3. Third baseman Austin Russell walked twice and scored a run in the
championship game, finished the tournament hitting .417 with three doubles, one
triple, seven RBIs and three stolen bases.
“I just found my swing before the first day, and I just felt
good the rest of the way. I didn’t do really anything else, I just did my swing
and felt good,” Russell said. “At the beginning of the count, [I was looking
to] get a good pitch to drive, and at the end of the count to protect.”
In the end, the team said that they were thankful for the
opportunity to win the tournament with this team, which is like family to them.
Their family mentality of sticking together and picking each other up would be
the driving force behind their victory.
“It feels really good,” Ingram said. “We won the Perfect
Game World Series last year as 13s, and this one feels just as good. This is a
grind. This tournament is a grind, so all my boys, congratulations to them. [It
was] awesome.”
Colin Husser would be the MV-Player of the tournament,
posting a .464 average (13-for-28) with two doubles, three triples, 10 RBIs and
a stolen base.
2017 14u WWBA National Championship runner-up: Louisiana Tigers
2017 14u WWBA National Championship MVP: Colin Husser
2017 14u WWBA National Championship MV-Pitcher: Luke
Robertson
