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Tournaments  | Story  | 7/13/2021

Scorpions/Giants Scout Moves on To Semis

Matthew Welsh     
Photo: Jackson Holliday (Perfect Game)
MARIETTA, Ga. -- The Scorpions/Giants Scout team earned their 10th victory of the 2021 WWBA Championship and extended their event unbeaten streak to 10 games, after beating the Team Elite Scout Team 4-3 in the quarterfinals on Monday night in Atlanta. 
 
Not even a 25-minute rain delay in the top of the seventh inning could stop the Giants in their pursuit of a comeback victory against a team who, entering the game, was also undefeated.
 
Fueled by a late-inning offensive fury, it was Jayden Hylton’s final fly ball to deep right field, in a then-stagnant and soggy air that was dropped in the outfield, allowing Jordan Taylor to score from second base and win the game in walk-off fashion.
 
“To be honest with you I thought the ball could be gone until I saw [the outfielder] coming around,” said Hylton. “I guess I just had the best of luck.”
 
But it wasn’t all luck for the Giants’ clean-up hitter. Thanks to earlier events in the game, Hylton was confident in his strategy at the plate, even in such a high-pressure situation, and credited his awareness in helping him win the game.
 
“I knew they would be coming with a curveball because at the beginning of the game I was swinging at bad pitches and not really paying attention, so I knew they’d come with a curveball,” Hylton said.
 
Whether a walk-off home run or walk-off error, the Giants, who have traveled from Altamonte Springs, Fla. to take part in the WWBA, will take a win any way possible. But not lost on the day were the efforts of the Giants’ pitchers, who held Team Elite, a squad that put up 61 runs entering Monday night, to just three runs. 
 
Mekai Griffin started on the hill for the Giants and lasted 3 2/3 innings while allowing only five hits, two earned runs and striking out four. Despite his line, the Giants still found themselves entering the bottom of the sixth down 3-1 with only six outs to work with. 
 
Jackson Holliday led of the inning with a one-out walk and stole two bases. One batter later, Jack Bello worked an eight-pitch walk that gave the home team runners on first and third with two outs. Jake Kulikowski followed Bello with a two-out RBI single to center field that cut the deficit to one. Bello scored during the next at-bat thanks to a fielding error at third base on a ground ball off the bat of Grant Gallagher. 
 
With one inning to play, the two quarterfinalist clubs found themselves locked in a frenzied 3-3 stalemate. 
 
Will Tippett gave Team Elite life with a double high off of the left field wall with one out in the seventh, but a steady downpour immediately followed his hit, forcing the game to pause for nearly half an hour. And after the restart it was the Giants who would re-emerge on the front foot.
 
Reliever Cole McDaniel, who was inserted into the game in the fourth inning, successfully executed a pick-off move to second base before even throwing a pitch out of the restart. The move caught Tippet off-guard for the out, and tilted the game’s momentum back in the Giants’ favor. 
 
“Me and the second baseman had the whole thing planned out,” said McDaniel of his strategy coming off of the delay. “You just have to keep your mind right and stay focused. You can’t really think about anything else besides pitching.”
 
And after erasing Team Elite’s final hitter of the game, the Giants surged to the fateful bottom of the seventh. A combination of a leadoff single from Jordan Taylor and intentional walk to Holliday set the game-winning stage for Hylton and his slicing fly ball. 
 
Even with the win, the Giants have little time to celebrate. Now among the tournament’s four finalists, they will face the East Cobb Astros in Tuesday's semifinal at 11 a.m. Another win there would give the Giants a chance to play for the 2021 17u WWBA Championship title. 
 
“It’s pretty exciting, and we have all of our pitchers coming back tomorrow, so I think that we have a good chance to win,” said Holliday. “It’ll for sure give us momentum and I think we’ll take full advantage of it.”
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