MESA, Ariz. – Championship Day at the 17u Perfect Game World Series fell victim to the Arizona desert’s summer monsoon season Monday morning, with rain in the East Valley of the Sun forcing the cancelation of both semifinal games and the championship game at the Cubs Park Riverview spring training complex and Sloan Park stadium.
The cancelations resulted in the event’s order of finish being determined by playoff seedings, which meant the No. 1-seeded Midwest Elite out of Norman, Okla., were crowned the champion. The No. 3 So Cal Birds (Corona, Calif.) were declared the runner-up, with No. 5 GBG Marucci (Los Angeles) and the No. 7 Coast Titans (Mobile, Ala.) sharing third-place.
No one, of course, was happy with the way this PG national championship tournament was forced to conclude, but the players, coaches, their families and friends had certainly enjoyed the previous four days playing baseball under the desert sun.
“It’s been a great experience,” Midwest Elite head coach Hills told PG Monday morning. “(The players) enjoy coming to the Perfect Game events, especially the ones that are played on a little bit bigger stage. … It’s unfortunate it worked out this way. Obviously, we wanted to play and I’m sure everybody else wanted to play, as well.”
The semifinal pairings were set after the four quarterfinal games concluded Sunday evening. Midwest Elite (5-0-0) got past No. 9 Temecula, Calif.-based CBA Marucci (3-1-2) by a 7-5 count, and was scheduled to face GBG Marucci (5-1-0) in one of Monday’s semifinals. GBG beat the No. 4 San Diego Show (3-2-0), 6-2, in the quarters.
The So Cal Birds (4-1-0) were set to square-off with the Coast Titans (5-1-0) in the other semi. The Birds snuck past the Tomball, Texas-based Banditos Scout Team (4-2-0), 5-4; the Titans were an 8-1 winner over the No. 2 Game On Stealth (3-1-1) out of Albany, Ga., in their quarterfinal.
The Elite earned the playoffs’ No. 1 seed because they were the only one of the 30 teams in the field to complete pool-play with an unbeaten, untied record.
“Obviously, it’s been a good run; we’ve been playing well for probably a good solid month now,” Hills said, noting the Elite finished 6-1-0 and in the round-of-16 at the 17u PG WWBA National Championship a couple of weeks ago. “These kids are very resilient and the chemistry (they share) goes a long way. When they get going the right way, they can get going pretty good once that ball gets rolling.”
Oklahoma commit Braxton Bohrofen led Midwest at the plate, hitting .375 (6-for-16) with a double, triple and eight RBI. Kade Self went 6-for-17 (.353) with two doubles, a triple and six RBI, and Ryan Harris had four singles in 10 at-bats (.400) and drove in three runs.
Hills used nine pitchers in the five games with 2018 right-hander Brayden Lloyd (5 2/3) and 2018 lefty Hunter Freese (5) the only two that worked more than five innings.
The runner-up So Cal Birds were led offensively by Jarred Greene, who went 7-for-12 (.583) with a double, two triples and five RBI. Nick Hansen was 4-for-11 (.364) with a double, triple and five RBI and UC Irvine commit Sam Ireland singled six times in 16 at-bats (.375) and drove in three runs.
Perfect Game All-American and Duke commit Blake Burzell, a 2018 right-hander, made one appearance for the Birds and delivered four shutout innings, allowing one hit while striking out four and walking one.
“We’re going to play hard every pitch and they know that’s how our program works,” Hills told PG over the weekend. “If you’re not going to play hard every pitch then we might need to find something else. That’s one of our deals; we just get after people.”