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Tournaments  | Story | 9/18/2017

Iowa Select wins Midwest Under

Patrick Ebert
Photo: Perfect Game

MOUNT VERNON, Iowa – Iowa Select Black 2019 served as the de-facto host of the inaugural WWBA Midwest Underclass Qualifier, and they entered the playoffs with a pair of shutouts which allowed them to capture the No. 1 seed and a first round playoff bye. They emerged victorious on Monday as the champion of the event with yet another shutout in hand, defeating Team DeMarini Elite, 1-0.

The game featured quite the pitching duel, at least over the game’s first four innings, and heading into the fifth inning DeMarini’s Griffin Holderfield looked as though he had the slight edge in that duel over his starting counterpart Tate Kuehner.

Holderfield had yet to allow a base hit going into the bottom of the fifth, and to that point had done a very good job keeping the potent Iowa Select bats quiet by mixing between his fastball and breaking ball very effectively. Shortstop Lorenz Elion changed that by leading off the frame with a single, although he was erased on the basepaths by a fielder’s choice bunt by the next batter, Garrett Ries.

After striking out the batter after Ries, Holderfield walked the batter after that, his fifth of the day, and his day on the mound was done as Team DeMarini summoned Jake Kmiecik from the ‘pen. Kmiecik walked the first batter he faced to load the bases with two outs.

In a game in which it seemed as though each team was waiting for the other to blink first, that ‘blink’ occurred when Kmiecik’s first pitch to Sam Kennedy got by his catcher and allowed the first, and only run to score. Kennedy would ground out on the very next pitch to end the fifth.

From there lefthander Tate Kuehner kept on cruising, going the distance in the championship win and earning tournament Most Valuable Pitcher honors for his efforts. On the day he allowed only four base hits and a walk, striking out three.

“It feels good, great to do it as a team,” Kuehner said after the game, recognizing the efforts of his teammates to pull together for the championship. “The other pitcher threw a great game too. It will be fun to go down there (Fort Myers) and keep getting wins as a team.”

With the win Iowa Select Black 2019 earned a paid invitation to participate in the 2017 WWBA Underclass World Championship, which will take place October 5-9 in Fort Myers, Florida.

“These are a bunch of guys that want to have fun playing game and want to show their talents at the same time,” Iowa Select Black 2019 Head Coach Jack Sole said of his team’s win. “They came out and they played very hard; from the start to the very end they played this (game) the right way and that’s what’s really fun about this group.”

While Iowa Select had several notable contributors on offense, it was Peyton Williams who made his presence felt the most. After missing the team’s opening pool play game on Friday he made his mark almost immediately on Saturday, going 2-for-2 with a pair of RBI that came courtesy of a towering home run.

He added a solo blast in Sunday’s 9-1 playoff win over the Nebraska Prospects White, and by the time Monday rolled around his opponents were more than well aware of his talents. That led to the young slugger getting the Barry Bonds treatment, as he was put on base intentionally with runners on to avoid the big blow.

Despite the honor Williams was quick to point out the success of his team as a whole.

“Everyone stepped up, the pitchers really stepped up; people stepped up to the plate, put up some runs and our pitchers did a great job keeping opponents to a few runs,” Williams said of the team’s qualifying championship. “It’s nice because now we get to spend a lot of time as a team, do some team events when we’re down in Fort Myers.”

Williams finished the tournament batting .556 (5-for-9) with the two home runs, five RBI and an eye-popping 1.915 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage).

While there are several qualifying events leading up to the WWBA World Championship for upperclassmen, this is the first qualifying event Perfect Game has hosted in which a team can earn an automatic bid to the Underclass World Championship.

“It’s been a tournament of a little bit of everybody and that’s kind of been our whole fall so far,” Sole said of his team with the Underclass World Championship on the horizon. “It’s just a little bit of everybody has given us a little bit of something for each one of these games and every single guy on the bench had something to do with this (championship).”

In the first semifinal matchup of the day Team DeMarini Elite rode six strong innings from lefthander Nathan Diamond to a 4-0 win over Hitters Baseball Navy. Diamond did a nice job pitching efficiently, inducing groundballs and needing just 71 pitches to get through his six innings of work, allowing just three base hits and two walks while striking out two in the win.

Team DeMarini scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth to give them some breathing room, highlighted by pinch hitter Ernesto Moreno’s two-run single.

Iowa Select advanced to the championship game by defeating Cangelosi Sparks 2020 Black 8-2 in the second semifinal game. Entering the game having allowed only one run in three games as a team, Iowa Select righthander Harrison Cook did a nice job continuing the strong pitching trend. Cook went six innings, scattering three base hits and four walks while striking out five.

Second baseman Sam Link had the big hit for Iowa Select, hitting a two-run double in the team’s five-run fourth inning and going 2-for-4 with three runs scored and three total RBI.


2017 Midwest Underclass Qualifier runner-up: Team DeMarini Elite



2017 Midwest Underclass Qualifier MVP: Peyton Williams



2017 Midwest Underclass Qualifier MV-Pitcher: Tate Kuehner
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