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Tournaments  | Story  | 7/20/2018

Astros are 16u Super25 champs

Bryan Cooney     
Photo: East Cobb Astros 16u (Perfect Game)



FORT MYERS, Fla. – With a matchup of the two top pitching staffs throughout the entire 16u PG Super25 National Championship, it was no surprise that Friday’s championship showdown between the East Cobb Astros and eXposure Prime amounted to be a low-scoring affair.

Tied after seven innings at one, and each team scoring a run apiece in the eighth, it took some clutch pitching from the Astros’ Andrew Armstrong (2020, Buford, Ga.) to get East Cobb out of the 10th inning. From there the game went its deciding tiebreaker scenario and a bases-loaded walk drawn by Andrew Bennett (2020, Kennesaw, Ga.) lifted the Astros to a 3-2 victory at jetBlue Park.

With the game reaching the 10th inning, Perfect Game’s tiebreaker rules set the final three hitters of the previous inning on the bases with one out. Armstrong, who came to the mound in relief in the eighth for the Astros, was able to work his way clear of the traffic by punching out back-to-back hitters to give East Cobb their shot at the win.

Needing just one run for the title, Bennett watched a 3-1 pitch go outside to force home the championship-winning run for East Cobb.

The starting pitching matchup consisted of a pair of southpaws, with Josiah Siegel (2020, Woodstock, Ga.) on the hill for East Cobb and Tennessee commit Colin Ahearn (2020, Lakeville, Mass.) his opposite number going for eXposure. The two locked up in a duel that rivaled any title-game matchup out of Perfect Game’s summer tournaments this year.

Both lefties put on an exhibition of mixing speeds and locating everything in their arsenal through three innings as they each set down the first nine batters they faced with Siegel picking up three strikeouts and Ahearn whiffing five of his first nine batters.

eXposure picked up their first baserunner of the game for either side in the fourth on an error to lead off the inning. Siegel promptly cleaned the basepaths with a pickoff at first to record another scoreless frame, but ran into his first jam of the day in the fifth.

After allowing a one-out infield single and seeing a potential inning-ending double play ball end up with a throwing error resulting in runners on first and second, Siegel again held the line by getting back-to-back strikeouts to keep the game scoreless.

Ahearn went on to retire the side in the fourth before issuing a lead-off walk in the fifth, but that runner was quickly wiped out as an attempt sacrifice bunt was snuffed out by a quick reaction from eXposure catcher Hayden Gilliland (2020, Maryville, Tenn.), who pounced on the bunt in front of the plate and fired to second to begin a 2-6-3 double play to help Ahern get through the fifth.

In the top of the sixth, Siegel allowed back-to-back one-out singles and saw Lukas Cook (2020, Knoxville, Tenn.) ground another single through the left side. However, with the lead runner heading for the plate, Astros left fielder Treyton Rank (2021, Acworth, Ga.) came up firing towards the plate and his throw home met East Cobb catcher Stephen Hrustich (2019, Lilburn, Ga.) in time to keep the game scoreless.

The Astros finally broke through in the home half as after Brad Grenkoski (2020, Knoxville, Tenn.) lined a two-out double to the fence in left, Jagger Smith (2020, Winnsboro, La.) would bring him home with an RBI single to right to put East Cobb ahead 1-0.

With eXposure down to their final three outs, Cameron Fisher (2019, Knoxville, Tenn.) got the seventh started with a single to right, and Gilliland followed with an attempted sacrifice bunt, but he was able to beat an offline throw from Siegel to put two men on with nobody out.

Christian Martin was called upon to lay down another bunt to move both runners up to second and third, and he succeeded with a perfectly placed bunt that left Hrustich no play, but he faked a throw to first and hung up Fisher, who made too big a turn around third. Hrustich made the throw to third, but Fisher went ahead and broke for the plate and slid in well ahead of the throw back to the plate to tie the game.

Ahearn was tasked to try to again move runners up to second and third, but his bunt was handled by Siegel, who nabbed the lead runner for the first out of the seventh.

That would be his last act of the game, as Siegel departed after going 6 1/3 innings and striking out nine. Ethan Stamps (2020, Madison, Ga.) was able to send the game to the bottom of the seventh still tied at one by inducing a 6-4-3 double play.

Ahearn struck out a pair in the seventh to stretch the game into extra innings, which would be the final inning for the Tennessee commit as he finished with 10 strikeouts for the game.

Gehrig Abel (2020, Signal Mountain, Tenn.) led off the eXposure eighth with a single, and made it around to third with two outs and came across with the go-ahead run as Fisher launched a double into the right-center field gap to bring eXposure three outs away from the title.

Needing a run to extend the game, Hrustich gave East Cobb a runner in scoring position with a 1-out double to the gap in left-center. Nathan Smith (2021, Thomasville, Ga.) would follow with what appeared to be a fly ball to right center that was in the grasps of the eXposure center fielder, but a collision with the right fielder jarred the ball loose. Hrustich, needing to make sure to be close enough to second to tag and move up to third, had enough time to come all the home to make it a brand new game at two apiece.

With Smith at second, Cook, who had come on in relief for Ahearn to start the eighth, buckled down and picked up back-to-back strikeouts to send the game into the ninth.

Armstrong and Cook tossed clean innings in the ninth, setting up the tiebreaker scenario that gave each team a shot to put across a run, but it was Armstrong who came up with the goods to keep eXposure off the scoreboard and the Astros only needing one batter to close out the tournament with a championship.

With a matchup that lived up to the billing, Siegel knew that matching up against a talented arm on the other side meant that keeping his focus was paramount to keep East Cobb in the game.

“I was locked in, I was confident and me and and Stephen had been working a lot this summer and we had trust in one another,” Siegel said. “All of my pitches were working and I had a great defense behind me. They made some great plays and I’ve got to give credit to them. I tried to stay focused and not give away any bad innings to those hitters and I did a good job of that today.”

Catching most of the tournament for East Cobb and performing under the pressure of all 10 innings on Friday, Hrustich had high praise for Siegel on Friday through a eXposure lineup that had put up 59 runs of offense in their prior six games of the tournament.

“We had to be 110 percent locked in, and Josiah on the mound was hitting his spots, his changeup was really good,” Hrustich said. “When he got it going, we just had to try to keep it rolling.”

Hrustich was selected as the tournament’s MV-Player as he finished with a .500 average (8-for-16) with four extra-base hits and four RBI.

Ahearn was the choice as the tournament’s MV-Pitcher, with his championship game performance adding to an earlier four-inning stint in the tournament. The lefthander finished a 2.50 ERA with 14 strikeouts in 11 innings.


2018 16u PG Super25 National Championship runner-up: eXposure 16u Prime



2018 16u PG Super25 National Championship MVP: Stephen Hrustich
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