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Tournaments  | Story  | 10/9/2022

Giants Scout Comes From Behind to Advance

Blake Dowson     
Photo: Alex Sosa (Perfect Game)
JUPITER, Fla. – Scorpions/Giants Scout Team expected to make the playoff bracket coming into the WWBA World Championship.

They did, but by earning an at-large bid after dropping a close 2-1 game against Team Georgia National/5 Star to close out pool play that put them at 2-1 overall. Their 11-3 run differential earned them that spot, which was really all they needed to get rolling.



In the Round of 32, they beat the No. 4 seed Dulin’s Dodgers Scout Team, 6-3, to move into the Round of 16.

“This is where we expected to be, on paper,” Giants coach Jerry Kennedy said. “We knew we were going to be in for a battle with [Dulin’s]. We’ve seen these guys a few times, so it feels good to come from behind and get the W.”

The Giants found themselves down 2-0 after the first inning. They got one back on a Josue Figueroa RBI single in the top of the second inning, which is where the score stood until the bottom of the third, when Dulin’s pushed another run across the move their lead to 3-1.

The momentum shifted in the fourth, though, when the Giants’ Alex Sosa worked a nine-pitch at-bat that ended in a muscled single over the first baseman’s head into right field. Sosa’s win in that at-bat seemed to give instant energy to the Giants’ dugout.

Jacob McKenzie followed with a single into left field, and Gavin Thomas kept the train moving with a laced two-RBI double just over the third base bag to tie the game at 3-3.

Taylor Rabe followed up the two-run fourth inning from his lineup with a shutdown 11-pitch frame in the bottom half.

The offense responded with three more runs in the fifth. Jake Richardson hit his second double of the game to begin the onslaught, and Robert Nedry drove him in three pitches later with what ended up being the game-winning RBI single.

Nedry himself came around to score on a wild pitch later in the inning, and Logan Hughes pushed the lead to 6-3 with an RBI single to right at the end of an eight-pitch battle.

“[Our hitters] do a good job making adjustments, and that’s one thing we do, is these hitters know how to grind them out and at least put the ball in play,” Kennedy said. “This week, we’ve seen all these elite arms, so our strikeouts have kind of been high, but that’s what you’re going to get in Jupiter. So going into the playoffs I said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to do a better job of grinding them out, putting the ball in play, press and run on the defense.' So I was happy to see that in our at-bats.”

While the lineup worked on the comeback on offense, Rabe was the man maintaining order on the bump. Entering the game in the third inning in the middle of a bases loaded, one out situation with his team down 3-1, Rabe induced a ground ball on the first pitch he threw to get the Giants out of the inning with limited damage to the scoreboard.

He followed with three more scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and really squeezing the life out of the ballgame.

“[Rabe] is a strike thrower,” Kennedy said. “Heavy fastball. He did what we always expect of him, throw strikes and come in and shut it down when we need him.”
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