FORT MYERS, Fla. – From the first pitch in the early morning hours to the final pitch taking place a good 14 hours later, a worthy quartet of teams are set to battle for the 16u BCS National Championship. The third round of the playoffs throughout the pools commenced at 8:00 a.m., with half of the teams getting their games completed before weather rolled into Southwest Florida mid-morning.
With storms remaining in Fort Myers for hours, torrential rains soaked the area, rendering the prospect of the remaining playoff games to be moved to Sunday morning before semifinal action could take place. Fortunately the rain came to an end, allowing fields to dry out enough for play to resume at 6:00 p.m., and the first team to seal an eventual spot in the semifinals had to survive a thriller to even get to the quartetfinal round.
SWFL Nation 2019 got a walkoff single by the tournament’s leading hitter, Yariel Diaz (2019, Cape Coral, Fla.), to defeat 5 Star 16u Gilbert 7-6, setting up a matchup with Scorpions South 2019 in the quarterfinal.
The previously unbeaten Scorpions ran into a buzzsaw in SWFL righthander Cooper Haskell. After his teammates gave him an early lead to work with in the top of the first inning, Haskell (2019, Lakeland, Fla.) was terrific in his six-plus innings of work, surrendering a lone single in the fourth inning and one run while striking out three hitters.
SWFL got two critical runs in the top of the seventh thanks to run-scoring singles by Michael Hopta (2019, Delray Beach, Fla.) and Joel Ortega (2019, Lake Worth, Fla.) to give them a 4-0 lead with three outs to get.
After Haskell hit the leadoff batter, Tyler Kreissler (2019, Rotonda West, Fla.) came on in relief. With two outs, the Scorpions mounted a late charge drawing to within 4-2, but a flyout to right sent SWFL off to Sunday’s semifinals.
Top Tier Roos 16u Americans were the second team to sew up a spot in the semifinals. Their first win on Saturday was a 1-0 victory over Next Level Baseball in the morning that came behind a strong outing by Hunter Mink (2019, Palm Harbor, Fla.) who struck out eight in 5 2/3 innings. Their second win of the day was an impressive 9-1 triumph over Elite Squad 16u Select in the quarterfinals off the strength of another great performance on the mound.
Andrew Booth (2019, Palm Harbor, Fla.) surrendered a first inning run, but would get supported by his offense as the Roos took advantage of defensive miscues to fuel a four-run third inning. Booth would allow only two hits on the evening as he cruised with an 84-pitch complete game.
Another club had to survive a tussle in their first game on Saturday, as 5 Star National Burress had to come from behind against Ostingers Baseball Academy 2019 in extra innings. Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the eighth, a bases-loaded hit by pitch set up Trey Lipscomb (2018, Clarksburg, Md.) who would produce a walkoff single to right to set up a matchup with Ropes 16U Florence in the quarterfinals.
In a back-and-forth affair, the two sides traded the lead three times in the first two innings, but 5 Star National rode a three-run fourth inning with back-to-back sacrifice flies from Harrison Long (2019, Sarasota, Fla.) and Chad Treadway (2019, Fletcher, N.C.) to pull ahead 5-4.
Strong relief work from Duncan Lutz (2019, Somerville, Ga.) and Justin Koehler (2019, Holiday, Fla.) produced five scoreless innings, with Koehler getting a strikeout with the tying run at the plate to end the game.
The last game of the night saw a wild contest between Elite Squad 16u Prime and USA Showcase Prime. Elite Squad jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the first inning, but USA responded with five second inning runs to forge back ahead.
The lead changed hands again as Elite Squad scored two in the fourth, but USA answered back with four more runs, including a big two-run double from Bret Adkins (2019, Hiram, Ga.) to lead 9-6.
With the fifth inning being the final one of the night, Elite Squad had one more rally, as Mykanthony Valdez (2019, Davie, Fla.) tripled to right-center field to score two runs, making it a 9-8 game. A walk made it first and third with one out, as Ryan Keenan (2019, Lighthouse Point, Fla.) came to the plate.
Keenan ripped a liner right at the USA first baseman who snared it out of the air, leading him right to the bag to double up the trail runner and send them off to the semifinals.
Sunday’s matchup will see SWFL Nation take on Top Tier Roos 16u Americans, while 5 Star National Burress will face USA Showcase Prime with the winners meeting in the stadium at JetBlue Park for all the marbles.