FORT MYERS, Fla. – With a roster top heavy on top talent and one with a disciplined approach to the game, the Team Elite 14u Nation didn’t really need an added catalyst when it came to their pursuit of the title at this week’s 14u Perfect Game BCS National Championship. But they got one anyway, and they got it from their age-group older brothers.
The time the Elite 14u Nation was in Southwest Florida at the 14u PG BCS overlapped with the time the Team Elite 15u Prime was here competing for the 15u PG BCS National Championship title. The 15u group won that championship on Thursday and infused an extra dose of motivation into the 14u group.
“We wanted to go home with a trophy, too, after they did it,” Elite 14u Nation elite 2021 prospect Brady House said Saturday. “It was a challenge (for us) and we wanted to win (a championship).”
Consider it done. The Winder, Ga.-based and No. 5-seeded Team Elite 14u Nation jumped to a 2-0 first inning lead and were never headed, and beat the Knoxville, Tenn.-based and No.3-seeded Tennessee Nationals, 5-1, in the 14u PG BCS championship game Saturday afternoon at jetBlue Park.
Both the Elite 14u Nation – which was coming off a run into the semifinal round of last week’s 14u PG WWBA National Championship – and the Nationals finished the tournament with 9-1-0 records.
“It was a great team effort this week,” Team Elite 14u Nation head coach Mitch Pittman said. “We had some adversity coming in early in the week with a little bit of a depleted pitching staff from the WWBA, but the kids fought through it. They swung the bats all week and threw it across the plate, and it was just absolutely awesome. This is a great feeling right now; this is a great victory for these kids.”
The Elite 14u Nation jumped to their 2-0 lead in the top of the first on back-to-back sacrifice flies from House and Christopher Katz, but the Nationals manage to make things especially interesting in the bottom of the second.
The Elite 14u Nation looked to have an ace in the hole when they trotted Grant Taylor out to the mound to start the game. Taylor is a 6-foot-2, 200-pound right-hander with a low-90’s fastball who is ranked No. 4 overall (No. 3 RHP) in the class of 2021, but he struggled mightily with his command on this day.
In fact, the Nats pushed a run across in the bottom half of the second on the strength of four bases-on-balls, and chased Taylor from the game after only 1 1/3 innings. House came into pitch with the bases loaded and only one out, but induced a groundout with the play being made at the plate and then a fly ball to centerfield to limit the damage done.
“I was just like, let’s get groundballs and get out of the inning; I’ll take two outs (and give up) one run if I have to,” House said. “It turned out even better than that; it went good.” He ended up working the final 5 2/3 innings without giving up an earned run on five hits, with eight strikeouts and one walk.
The Elite 14u Nation scored a single run in the top of the fourth when Jeffery Waters delivered an RBI single, and scored two more in the top of the sixth after Kenneth Mallory led-off with a double, House singled him home and Matthew Buchanan came through with a sacrifice fly.
Team Elite totaled seven hits in the win, and House and Waters were the only players with two apiece; one of Waters’ was a double. The Nationals totaled five hits, with Colby Reynolds and Derek McCarley each smacking a pair of singles.
There really doesn’t seem to be much the dynamic House – who just turned 14 years old last month – can’t do on the baseball field, which is really saying a mouthful considering his age. A 6-foot-2, 180-pound primary shortstop from Winder, Ga., PG ranks him as the No. 12 overall national prospect (No. 3 SS) in the class of 2021, and based on his performance here this week, he might need an upgrade.
House hit .571 (16-for-28) with five doubles, a triple, 12 RBI and nine stolen bases. He made one other appearance on the pitcher’s mound before Saturday’s championship game outing, and ended up working 8 1/3 innings without giving up an earned run on six hits while striking out 10 and walking two; he was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
“I’m just glad that I have a team that supports me in everything that I do, and it feels great to come out here and play and win the championship,” the humble House said. “We all get along together great in the dugout, and if it wasn’t for these dudes I don’t know where I would be right now.”
It really is quite remarkable the accolades House has accumulated since making his PG tournament debut in April 2015 (the 14u PG BCS National Championship was his 13th). He has now been named a PG tournament MVP three times and an MV Pitcher once and sometime next week he will be named to his ninth all-tournament team.
House has now played for teams that won PG WWBA, PG BCS, PG Super25 and PG Youth championships and he hasn’t even started high school yet.
“Brady is real leader for us; he leads on the field,” Pittman said. “He goes out there and performs and rallies the kids behind him, and he’s a really, really good team player. He’s a very good baseball talent, but the biggest thing about (House) is that he just works his butt off every single day.
“He works so hard for this team, and I’m glad this group of guys could really come together for this national championship.”
The Tennessee Nationals’ Hunter Merrick, a 5-foot-10, 150-pound unranked 2021 left-hander from Knoxville, was named the MV Pitcher. Merrick made four appearances over the duration of the event and accumulated 13 1/3 innings during which he did not allow an earned run on five hits; he struck out eight and walked four.
Pittman will now take this 14u team up to PG Park South-LakePoint in Emerson, Ga., where it will compete at the 15u PG WWBA National Championship. “Hopefully we’ll keep swinging it well and throwing it across the plate, and we’ll see what happens up there,” he said.
But for now, the Team Elite Baseball organization has another PG national championship trophy and banner it can put on display, and the Elite 14u Nation players will be soon walking around wearing PG national championship rings. The 14u’s took care of business and matched what their 15u brothers accomplished just two days ago, and now everyone has a little extra bounce in their steps.
“This is great for the program moving forward,” Pittman said. “We’ve been working hard as a program to bring these national championships home, and to get to do it back-to-back with our 15u team, we’re very blessed to be able to do that.”
2017 14u BCS National Championship runner-up: Tennessee Nationals
2017 14u BCS National Championship MVP: Brady House
2017 14u BCS National Championship MV-Pitcher: Hunter Merrick
