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Tournaments  | Championship | 6/29/2024

Close Knit BPA Takes 17u Crown

Vincent Cervino
Photo: BPA (Perfect Game)
The championship final was a tale of two very different paths to the final game as Canes Nationa/Mets Scout Team and BPA squared off in the last game of the event. Canes National had won every playoff game by run rule except for two games and BPA had only won two of their playoff games via run rule en route to Championship Saturday.

The Canes had missed out on a bye and thus had to play one more game of bracket, but this is one of the deepest rosters in the tournament, with high level talent and ranked players littered throughout their roster page. The Canes had won the UBC East in West Palm Beach and pretty much cruised through bracket, leading to a matchup with Trosky/Brewers Scout Team in the semifinals. Another run rule victory was in the cards for the Canes, cruising to a 14-4 victory.



BPA cruised in pool play, allowing just four runs in five games, four of which were run rule victories, to secure a bye heading into bracket play. They were coming off a top three finish at the UBC West and the bats were raring to go this week. Their path to Saturday featured the top pitching matchup of the event against Wow Factor, a comeback win over Canes American, and a blowout victory over the Scorpions. They were down 5-0 in the semifinal before timely home runs pushed them across to win by one run over the East Cobb Astros.

The Canes got the ball rolling immediately in the first inning with three straight singles to plate a run, including one from Coy James who set a 17u WWBA record with 20 hits in a single week. With a 1-0 lead Canes southpaw Carson Bolemon went to work, striking out two of three hitters in a 1-2-3 first inning.

Gabriel Milano hit a solo shot in the third inning to up the lead to 2-0 but BPA starter Kelven Perera Arellano was limiting hard contact and working quickly on the mound. An Ole Miss commit, he’s a catcher by trade but typically only has to toe the rubber when the team is out of pitching.

“Kelven (Perera Arellano) pitched the championship game in Cooperstown, he doesn’t pitch, and he pitches the championship here; we joke with him that he only pitches championship games when we run out of arms,” said BPA founder and head coach Jared Sandler. “He’s a tough kid and competitor; he’s a guy that when he has the ball at the end we feel like we’re gonna win.”

Perera Arellano did that and more, getting a lot of weak contact from his hybrid mix of fastball, a solid changeup, and something in between resembling an eephus that clocked in as low as 48 mph. Regardless, BPA was able to answer in the third inning with a clutch two-run double off the bat of co-MVP Cooper Flemming. The Canes then responded again, this time in the form of an Ethin Bingaman solo shot, a missile over the left field wall.

Then the west coast small ball kicked in for BPA as Vaugh Coleman led the bottom of the fifth off with a double and then Sandler showed what he had under his sleeve. Flemming showed bunt, but then pulled back and hit a soft grounder through the left side, perfectly executing the hit-and-run.

“Cooper (Flemming), he handles the bat better than anyone on the team, every time he’s in a bunt situation he has a read,” said Sandler. “He’s got the freedom to slash and he made that read and it was a good decision he executed.”

Then followed a strikeout and an RBI ground out from Seth Hernandez tied the game at three runs apiece. Billy Carlson then provided the hustle play of the game, beating out a soft infield single to shortstop and plating the go ahead run. Perera then got right back to work, allowing an infield single then immediately inducing a ground ball double play and striking out the cleanup hitter to just get three more outs.

He didn’t need to get three more outs, however, as the BPA offense exploded in the bottom of the sixth inning, scoring seven runs to secure a run rule victory. The big blast came from the No. 2 player in the country Seth Hernandez, who hit a grand slam over the wall in left field that left the bat at 104 mph per Yakkertech.

“I was struggling to see the ball in earlier at-bats so I was just looking for a heater and I got it and took advantage of it,” said Hernandez.

Hernandez and Flemming were named co-MVPs while Canes National’s Johnny Slawinski was named MV-Pitcher following his six shutout innings in bracket play. Hernandez hit .538 with an insane .649 on-base with three home runs and nineteen RBI while Flemming hit .486 with multiple home runs and six stolen bases.

This has been an extremely tight knit group for BPA, a team that has been playing together since they were twelve years old. This is also Jared Sandler and BPA’s first 17u WWBA championship trophy, a big marker for what is the crown jewel of the summer tournament circuit.

“Keep battling together, we’ve been battling thru the last few games and we’ve been sticking together and grinding games out,” said Flemming.

“This is a tight group, we’ve been together for four years now, even more than that, eleven games isn’t easy to do and we got it done,” said Hernandez.

“This group is really special,” said Sandler. This special group of guys who played together for about half their lives at this point were able to master the gauntlet and walk out of Atlanta as 17u WWBA National Champions.
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