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Tournaments  | Championship | 1/24/2025

MLK East Crowns Champions

Hannah Jo Groves
MLK East Championship

14U 

PLO White took the 14U PG East MLK Championship on Monday in a 10-2 win over ZT Southeast. 

With a chill in the air and no sun in the sky, the uncommon weather had everyone in the Southwest Florida complex bundled in jackets and clutching a hot chocolate or coffee. 



Even though the wind was whipping through the air, the 14U champions did not let it affect their play or their attitude. 

“I felt very confident in myself,” PLO third baseman Bengie Del Nodal said. 

ZT Southeast pitcher and tournament MVPitcher Mason Moeller’s performance was strong on the weekend, striking out 12 batters in 5 innings pitched - 6 of the strikeouts coming in the championship game. Moeller got up to 80 mph with his fastball. 

However, when Moeller hit his pitch limit, Del Nodal got the action started in the bottom of the fourth inning with a triple to centerfield. The line drive brought 2 runners in and set the stage for some major offense - ending the inning with 8 runs scored.

“I was having positivity in my mind,” Del Nodal said about when he stepped up to the plate before knocking a 2-RBI triple. “I was focused on my at-bat and thinking about what I was going to do - having a plan for my at-bat…It makes [me] feel that I really helped the team. This was my first tournament that I had with this team - a good way to start the season off.”

PLO White’s head coach, Adam Reeves said he wasn’t surprised by Del Nodal coming through.

“We saw a kid that was prepared, confident and ready to execute for his team.”

Reeves’ son, left fielder AJ Reeves (Adam Reeves) won MVP of the tournament - with 7 runners batted in and 8 hits on the weekend.

“As a father and you’re coaching your son, there’s a stigma on that sometimes. So to have him go out there and earn it on his own and be recognized like that is very special to me.”

AJ said this MVP award came as a result of going back to the basics. 

“I was just trying to see the ball well. I just had to be myself and not do too much - focusing on opposite field… [The MVP award] means a lot to me, because it shows that my hard work pays off.”

This championship-winning PLO White team will make its next appearance at the 2025 Weston Travel Ball Winter Warm-Up starting on January 29. 

15U

After a slow, back-and-forth game against Florida National 15U - LHB emerged victorious, winning 8-7. 

By the time the 15U division began their championship game, the sun had begun to warm up the ballpark, making the weather much more tolerable for spectators and players alike. 

LHB came out hot, scoring 5 runs in the second inning, but the pace of the game grew sluggish. Parents in the stands and players on the field struggled to get any energy going in the middle innings. However, Florida National 15U came steadily creeping back, up 6-5 in the bottom of the fifth. 

In the top of the sixth, left fielder Niuler Lima drove a double to center and got 2 runs across home plate to get his team’s lead back.

“I was just expecting a fastball first pitch and it was kind of in the upper side, so I just went for it,” Lima said. 

In terms of the pace of the game, Lima said he was reminding himself to stay present. 

“Stay focused and never let your guard down. There were many times that we were down, like in the sixth inning, and we kept going. And we won.”

16U

After semifinal games that were decided by just one run, the 16U division competed at Terry Park for the championship title - with Hit Dogs OH winning the contest 5-0. 

The game was a defensive battle for the first four innings with not a single run on the board.

In the top of the fifth, after a couple walks were issued by Hit Factory Pros 2027, Grayson Ryan put the first run on the board with an RBI single to left field. 

Then, with two outs, extra hitter Carter Hullett brought the energy levels up when he lined one to left field for a 2 RBI double - making the score 3-0. 

“It was a great moment - a big moment in the game that kind of broke it open…giving our team some momentum to close out the game,” Hullett said.

Hullett showed a lot of patience and mental strength throughout the weekend - as he was walked 9 times in the tournament. 

“I decided, ‘if I walk the rest of the tournament, I’ll take 10 or 11 walks over trying to do too much.’

I kind of had to bide my time in a way and just wait for pitchers to put something in the zone so I could mash it - or anything close to the zone. Nothing too far, but definitely something that I could put a bat on and make something happen.”

Coach Jason Slack said he was impressed with Hullett’s discipline. 

“[Hullett] is a very mature young man for the age of 16. He’s one of the guys that the maturity jumps off the page at you and he’s very advanced. And because he’s advanced, he has a great approach to the game.”

On the other side of the ball, Slack said his team’s strategy on defense is part of what helped them get to the championship game. 

“Anytime there’s a guy on second base with less than two outs and a ball hit to the outfield, we’re not throwing the ball home to throw you out. We’re going to give up the ones, but we’re not going to throw home. Then the guy who just hit rounds first and goes to second, and now all of a sudden, you basically set the table for the flood gates to open. We want to keep the double play in order, so we never throw the ball home unless it’s the bottom of the seventh.”

This Hit Dogs OH team is a “pick-up” team assembled by Slack. Their first time meeting one another was on Day 1 of the tournament. Some players, like Hullett, traveled about 12 hours by car to compete in Fort Myers.

“Using the power of social media, just reaching out to some coaches that we’ve played against and then finding a couple players that some of our players had recommended - that’s ultimately how the team got put together,” Slack said.

A foundational part of the team was Tournament MVP Koltyn Watters, who goes by the nickname “Flip.” On the weekend, Watters contributed 6 hits, 4 stolen bases and 9 runners batted in.

“I’m in the cage every day, just hitting balls, just trying to be the best that I can. And it finally showed,” Watters said. 

Slack has known Watters and his family for years and has seen a lot of development in Flip’s game. 

“It’s kind of unique for me, because I remember this little 12-year-old, 13-year-old a couple years ago…and then all of a sudden, he becomes a pretty good-sized young man and one of the better hitters that I’ve seen for that age.”

As for Hullett, he said he’ll never forget winning this title.

“I’ve been playing Perfect Game for a couple years now and I think it’s the first tournament I’ve ever won with a team. It just has a special feeling when you finally get to hold that trophy and hold that banner and you’re champions.”

17U

A couple fields over from the 16U championship, Legacy Adidas took the 17U title with an explosive sixth inning - winning 13-3 versus MN Blizzard 2026 Blue. 

MN Blizzard 2026 Blue steadily built a lead through the first four innings - but right-hander Cole Novara really picked his defense up. Novara struck out 5 batters with only 36 pitches in 3 innings. His fastball got up to 86 mph and he mixed in a 73 mph curveball. 

“I knew that I could trust [my teammates]. I knew the talent we had, so I just knew in the back of my mind that we were going to get the job done. Our coaching helped out a lot. They motivated us severely. And I just thought, ‘this is our time. This is where we need to go.’ And we got it done.”

Though the average onlooker might never guess, Novara is primarily an outfielder. Coach Scott Tousa said Novara really stepped up for his team when they were down on pitching. 

“[Navara] typically plays center field for us, and nothing drops in center field…(He’s) a kid that’s willing to do whatever the team needs of him.”

“I was excited to go for the team and just get the job done,” Novara said. “I was hoping I could just help the team any way I could. So if it was on the mound, centerfield, wherever they needed me, I was just ready for the moment and ready to help the team and lead them to victory.”

Novara, a Michigan State commit who took a 2-hour flight down from Dexter, Michigan also won MVP with 9 hits, 3 stolen bases and 9 runners batted in.

“He’s been an incredible leadoff hitter, works the count, doesn’t strike out very much and has been hitting the ball very hard and has very good speed as well,” Tousa said. 

“I think my swing started clicking later in the tournament,” Novara said. “I started off a little bit rusty, and then I kind of found my swing and I think my teammates were motivating me too…There’s a lot of guys that could have gotten [MVP] and I was pumped that I got it, obviously. I believe it was honestly more of a team award, because we played great that tournament. It was our first tournament together as a full team and I think we really thrived.”

Close behind Novara in the top performers of the weekend was shortstop Nolan Klein. He hit 2 home runs during the weekend - one of them in the championship game. 

“That home run was his second home run of the weekend, and he was just going up there with a lot of confidence and hitting balls hard…Nolan had really good at-bats all weekend. He was working counts really well, squaring up balls really well, hitting well - good situational hitting as well,” Tousa said.

Tousa said there was a specific lesson that he wanted his guys to remember as they continue on this season:

“We ended up going 5-0 on the weekend, but we were down in three of the games, and down late in three of the games. So, I think the big takeaway was: don’t get down. Don’t get down if things aren’t going your way early on. I think it was a good character builder for our team to face adversity in multiple games and still be able to come out on top.”

18U

Lastly, for the east’s 18U division, DRD DI Bat Puerto Rico got the 8-0 championship victory against Central Pointe Christian Academy. 

Tournament MVP and Central Pointe Academy’s first baseman, Aemed Nasser, had 8 hits, 6 runners batted in and a home run on the weekend. 

“I was just trying to get my job done for the team,” Nasser said. “As a lead-off hitter, I just try to give these guys energy. I try to have good at-bats, high-quality and get the job done…I was seeing the ball very well. I was reading pitches, taking high-quality at-bats. I took the ‘first pitch fastball’ method to start the game very seriously - taking early hacks.”

Nasser didn’t let the championship loss get him down - and said that no one has seen the last of his team.

“We did get second place, but I’m very proud of what we did. It just felt good, because my whole team’s been working really hard this fall. I’m just glad that we can execute the way we want. And there’s more tournaments to come, so I’m excited for that…Our team is going to be up there this year. Last year, we had an amazing team - the ’24 class. Don’t expect anything less than that from the ’25 class, because we’ll be up there in all those big tournaments.”

Though up against a strong team, DRD DI Bat Puerto Rico’s right-handed pitcher Yariel Navarro Irizarry was able to shut out Central Pointe Christian Academy. In 4 innings, he threw 53 pitches and struck out 5 batters with a high-80s fastball, a 77 mph curveball and a high-70s slider. 

Navarro Irizarry’s performance in the championship game put the icing on the cake for him to win MVPitcher - with 21 outs and 7 strikeouts in 7 innings pitched and no earned runs through the tournament. 

On the other side of the ball, DRD DI’s offense was explosive in the second inning of the final game. After one run came across on a hit-by-pitch, shortstop Gustavo Melendez stepped up to the plate and lined one to right field to get 2 more runners home - creating the offensive spark for his team. 

“In that at-bat, it was bases loaded,” Melendez explained. “I was trying to get some RBIs to keep the game going towards our team to win the game. We went up there to straight-up win the game and I was just trying to get some runs.”

Melendez said that it was more than just his team’s talent that led them to the title game.

“The chemistry that we have in the team, it’s very unique…Not every team has the chemistry that this team has…“We’ve been practicing because we have another tournament back in Puerto Rico. So we went here to get prepared and we had a great time.”
 
 
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