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Tournaments  | Story  | 7/14/2021

Little Caesars Into Round of 16 at 15u BCS

Sam Warren     
Photo: Reggie Sharpe (Perfect Game)
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- While hundreds of teams venture from all over the country to Florida’s Gulf Coast during Perfect Game BCS National Championship tournament season, most of them come from baseball hotbeds along the East Coast and the southern United States. In the 2021 15u BCS National Championship, 62 of the 92 teams in the field call either Florida, Georgia or Texas home, three of the most competitive baseball states in the nation. However, Little Caesars 15u traveled over 1,300 miles for this week’s BCS and have represented baseball from the Midwest in a big way.
 
Hailing from the Detroit, Mich. metropolitan area, Little Caesars is the only team from Michigan in the 15u BCS and is one of just three teams from the Great Lakes Region. While Detroit isn’t always well known for its baseball talent, Little Caesars showed off the best the Motor City has to offer, rolling through both sets of pool play to a 5-1 record. Little Caesars’ head coach Reggie Sharpe is proud of his squad’s statement so far at the BCS.
 
“The world is changing,” Sharpe said. “Up north, baseball is getting better and better. The metro-Detroit area has some great ballplayers, and we’re putting a northern spanking on our competition.”
 
Despite their impressive performance throughout the prestigious tournament, Little Caesars found themselves in a must-win situation in their final game of ranked pool play. They entered the matchup with the same 1-1 record as their opponent, Palm Beach Select 2024 South, with the winner heading into the gold winner’s bracket and the loser headed home. In the pivotal matchup, Little Caesars delivered, taking out Select, 6-3, in a whole team effort.

Despite the difficult and dramatic circumstances, Sharpe was confident his team would get the job done.
 
“We have two of our top guys out,” Sharpe said. “But, we knew we had guys who could step up, and that’s what they did.”
 
Little Caesars was missing two of Michigan’s highest-touted prospects in the tournament, Jarren Purify and the younger Reggie Sharpe. Purify, the second-ranked Michigan player in the 2023 class, and Sharpe, the second-ranked Michigan player in the 2024 class, will both be headed to Ann Arbor to play for Michigan in the future but were unavailable for the BCS due to injury. 
 
In Purify and Sharpe’s absence, several Little Caesars players filled their roles, leading their team against Select. After starting pitcher Paul Jones II retired the opposing lineup in order in the top of the first, the Little Caesars’ bats used their momentum to strike in the bottom of the inning.



Leadoff hitter Austin Cicerone kicked things off, lining a hard ground ball to third and advancing to second on an errant Select throw. After Oliver Service walked, Ty McGraw plated Cicerone as the first run of the game with an RBI single up the middle. Seamus Gallagher then loaded the bases with another single to center, and Hunter Belanger added to Little Caesars’ lead with a sacrifice fly to score Service, extending the rally to two.

Sharpe emphasized the importance of scoring early in the crucial matchup.
 
“We definitely wanted to make sure we put a dent on things in the first inning,” Sharpe said. “We needed to get some runs on the board early, and that’s what we did.”
 
While the Caesars’ offense went quiet in the second, they picked back up in the third. After Preston Barr reached on a fielder’s choice, McGraw stepped up to the plate with two outs. The top-1000 player in the class of 2024 stayed hot, shooting an RBI single to left to bring around Barr and give Little Caesars a 3-0 lead. McGraw tried to keep things simple in his approach during the clutch at-bat.
 
“I was just trying to put a single over the shortstop’s head and get an RBI,” McGraw said. “I worked the count and came through.”
 
When Select was able to get a run across in the third on a poor throw, Little Caesars answered back in the bottom of the inning. Belanger began the inning with a single, and Miguel Herb quickly scored the first baseman with an RBI double to right. After stealing third, the aggressive Herb took home on a passed ball, giving Caesars a 5-1 lead.

Sharpe believed that his team’s offense has improved as his bats have become more comfortable throughout the BCS.
 
“We have some great bats, but they haven’t been as loud as they can be,” Sharpe said. “Guys are now stepping up and gaining confidence in the tournament. Our guys are realizing that they can do it on their own and are succeeding.”
 
On the other side, Jones II was just as impressive as his offensive counterparts. The lefty out of Prior Lake, Minn. shoved for Little Caesars, tossing four innings of one-run baseball and striking out eight, along with shutting down some dangerous Select rallies.

After calling on Jones in the pivotal bout, Sharpe was impressed by how he rose to the occasion.
 
“Paul is a real gamer,” Sharpe said. “He’s come to us and worked real hard since he started playing with us a few years ago. He knew he had to dial it in today, and he’s gotten us where we are.”
 
While Select attempted a comeback in the fifth, erasing two runs from the Caesars’ lead, Gallagher fired back with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning, giving Little Caesars a 6-3 advantage. Time constraints limited the game to six innings, and Justin Czerniak closed out the Select bats to finish the victory.
 
Caesars rode the momentum of their crucial victory in their first game of bracket play, taking down the Gulf Coast Monarchs 15u, 6-4. Belanger got things going for Little Caesars in the second, bringing home Kole Waterman on an RBI single to right to tie the game at one. They then took the lead in the third with a three-run rally headlined by an RBI double from Service and an RBI single from McGraw. Troy Korvick and McGraw added two more runs in the fourth and fifth, as Korvick smacked an RBI double and McGraw shot out a sacrifice fly to give Caesars a 6-1 lead.

McGraw believed his team had done a great job of setting up scoring chances all tournament.
 
“The team has helped a lot by getting on base early,” McGraw said. “We’ve had very good opportunities to drive people in. Hopefully, we can keep that up.”
 
Despite a three-run comeback in the fifth, Caesars’ pitcher Czerniak weathered the potent Monarch offense, striking out four over 5 1/3 innings. Ryan Sieler then came on in relief, dominating the Monarch bats with four strikeouts through 1 2/3 innings to close out the victory.
 
Heading into the tournament’s final day, Caesars will have their work cut out for them, taking on top seed eXposure 15u Prime - Church Wednesday morning. Despite the challenge, Sharpe thinks his team will be up to the task.
 
“We know we have our backs up against the wall, but we’re ready,” Sharpe said. “We just have to take it game by game. We’ll do what we do, and we’ve got a lot more baseball in us.”
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