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Tournaments  | Story  | 6/26/2021

eXposure Prime Firing On All Cylinders

Matthew Welsh     
Photo: Eli Varner (Perfect Game)
MARIETTA, Ga. -- Exposure Prime 17u is heating up this summer after winning their second game of the Southeast World Series on Friday morning by a convincing 9-1 final over Five Star Mid-South. That game tallies as their second straight 9-1 victory of the event and positions them as one of the potential top seeds entering Saturday’s final pool play game.
 
The win began on the mound for Exposure, with East Tennessee State commit Jordan Woods, who handcuffed Five Star’s offense from the first batter of the game. Woods worked a perfect game through four scoreless innings, before giving way to Cooper Casteel in the fifth.
 
Woods struck out eight of the 12 batters he faced, and only two batters were able to work counts longer than six pitches. Woods’ fastball touched 88 mph and juxtaposed a tight 74 mph breaking ball with depth. When asked of his performance, and his thoughts on the mound mid-perfect performance, the word dominant came to mind.
 
“Yeah I felt great,” said Woods. “I had an outing a couple weeks ago that didn’t go my way, so it felt good to get out there today and throw well. I kind of recognized [the perfect game] after the first few innings, but I just try to block that out and attack right away.”
 
Still it’s not easy to exit a game when on a roll like the 6-foot-3 lefty was on Friday, but above all Woods has his team’s best interests in mind. He’s aware of his importance to the team and wants to maximize those returns however delayed they may be.
 
“You know, Coach kind of pulled me aside and told me that he wants me for Monday, so it was my job to just go with the flow and get ready to face some good competition on Monday,” Woods said.
 
Also fueling that push for a finish on Monday is an offensive core that to this point in the weekend, has produced 18 runs on 18 hits. Perhaps even more striking, Exposure have scored in eight of the 10 innings that they have participated in. It’s safe to say that their bats are hungry to hit no matter the opposition. 
 
Like many of the other top teams in Perfect Game tournaments, Exposure focuses on capitalizing on fastballs in the zone, a pitch they feel they can change the game with.
 
“We’re looking towards our first pitch, and really not trying to miss too many fastballs,” said leadoff hitter Wyatt Fooks. “We’re always taking aggressive swings, trying to drive the ball gap-to-gap and doing our jobs at the plate.”
 
Fooks, one of the team’s six uncommitted players, went 2-for-3 and scored two runs in their early morning rout.
 
Exposure’s roster, on paper, matches up with any in the country. Sixteen of their 22 players are currently committed, all of them to Division-I programs, ranging from Mississippi State to Virginia. So far on their summer path to a title, firepower has not been a problem.
 
Some of the team’s highest-rated players are shortstop Henry Godbout (ranked No. 377, Virginia commit), Bryce Hubbard (top-500, Mississippi State commit), outfielder Carson Yates (top-500, Middle Tennessee State commit) and right-handed pitcher Tripp Williams (top-500, Georgia Southern commit). Outfielder Eli Varner is the team’s only top-500 product yet to commit to a college.
 
Even with the team’s individual talent levels, Hubbard says he and his teammates produce a cohesive style of play that gives them an advantage when facing-off against other adept lineups. 
 
“I mean we’re just going out there and once we find a grove with the pitcher, we just kind of keep going with it,” Hubbard said. “I think we just want to keep what we’re doing right here. Our first tournament was a little rocky offensively, but we’ve picked it up in the last few weeks here, and we just want to keep it going...hopefully the baseball gods will be on our side.”
 
Exposure’s next game is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, and another win would surely send them to Sunday as a near-top seed. Though as prolific as pool play has been so far, Exposure knows that performances later in the weekend are what separate chronic contenders from first-round flukes.
 
“I mean it feels great,” Fooks said. “We’re all out here doing our jobs, and it was good to come out here and be successful today. We’re going to be going into our next game really confident, and when we’re able to work as a team we’ll have fun out here this weekend.”
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